
Copyright ]^?^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



Friends and Foes in Field 
and Forest 



WORMS AND WINGS 



Mv little maiben of four pears olb— 

^0 mptfj, ijut a genuine cfjilb is; glje, 
OTiti) Jjer bron^e=brott)n epeg anb fjer curlsi of golb- 

Came quite in biggugt one bap to me. 

iRubtins ber gfjoulber toitf) rosip palm, 
^g ttje loatijJJome tout^ geemeb pet to thrill fjer, 

^fje crieb, " motijer, 3 f ounb on mp arm 
^ f)orritle, tratoling caterpillar!" 

^nb pet, toitf) migcf)iebou£i gmile siljt toulb fjarblp gmotfjer, 
pet a glance in its baring, fjalf atoeb, fjalf sJfjp, 

B>^t abbeb, "OTfjile tfjep toere about it, mother, 
3 fcdigl) tliep'b jugt finisifjcb tlje butterflp." 

VL);}tv toere toorbfii to tfje tfjougfjt of tfje jbiouI tljat turns 
Jf rom tfje coarser form of a partial grotott), 

3l^eproact)ing tf)e infinite patience tfjat pearns 
OTitlj an unfenoton glorp to croton tfjem botf). 

iHf), loofe ttou largelp, toitfj lenient epes, 
0n tofjatso besibe tf)ee map creep anb cling, 

Jfor tije possible glorp tfjat unberlies 
Wi)t passing pljase of tte meanest tfjingl 

OTljat if ^ob's great angels, toljose toaiting lobe 

Pefjolbetl) our pitiful life beloto, 
Jfrom tfje ijolp teigtt of tf)eir teaben abobe, 

Coulbn't bear toitb tije toorm till tbe toings sfjoulb grot 

— Adeline D. T. Whitney. 



^ 



FRIENDS AND FOES 

In Field and Forest 



A Book for Home Reading, Intended to Assist 

Mothers and Teachers in Interesting Their 

Children in Nature Study, and to 

Lead Their Minds Upward 

to Nature's God 



Vesta J. Farnsworth 



The smallest insect holds a rank 
Important in the eye of Him 
Who framed the scale of being," 



REVIEW & HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

South Bend, Ind. New York City. 






Copyright, 1913, by 

Review & Herald Publishing Association 
Washington, D. C. 



©CI,A358335 



Contents 



PAGE 



HeMIPTERA - - - - - --'- 11-22 

A Bonny Boatman — A Noisy Insect 

DiPTERA -------- 25-35 

The Common Fly — Bottle of Blue — A Bold Burglar 

Hymenoptera ------- 36-89 

Bees — The First Paper-Makers — Bonny Bombus — 
Little, but "Exceeding Wise" — The Farmer-Ants — 
Baby in the Tree Top 

Orthoptera - - - - - - - 90-112 

The Grasshopper — Crickets — A Little Hypocrite 

NeUROPTERA ------- 1 13-157 

The Dragon-Fly — Day-Flies and Other Flies — The 
Ant-Lion — The White Ants — The Spider 

COLEOPTERA ------- I58-I93 

Bug or Beetle, Which? — The Potato-Beetle — The 
Ladybird — Night-Lights in the Meadow — Giant 
Beetles — The Weevil Family — The Merry Dancers 
— Some Odd Beetles 

Lepidoptera --___-._ 194-245 

Butterfly or Moth — Wings and Scales — Moths — 
Appearances Are Deceitful — Caterpillars and Silk 



^* 



The Boy That Never Sees 

God help the boy that never sees 
The butterflies^ the birds, the bees. 
Nor hears the music of the breeze 
When zephyrs soft are blowing; 

Who can not in sweet comfort lie 
Where clover blooms are thick and high, 
And hear the gentle murmur nigh 
Of brooklets softly flowing, 

God help the boy who does not know 
Where all the woodland berries grow; 
Who never sees the foresfs glow 

When leaves are red and yellow; 

Whose childish feet can never stray 
Where nature doth her charms display — 
For such a helpless boy, I say, 
God help the little fellow, 

— Selected, 



^^ For the first eight or ten years of a 
child's life the field or garden is the best 
schoolroom, the mother the best teacher, 
nature the best lesson book. " 

''With leaf and flower and tree, and with 
I every living creature, from the leviathan of 

I the waters to the mote in the sunbeam, the 

j dwellers in Eden held converse, gathering 

from each the secrets of its life. " 

j " Teach the children to see Christ in 

I nature. Take them out into the open air, | 

under the noble trees, into the garden; and in 

all the wonderful works of creation teach | 

them to see an expression of his love. " — | 

"Education.'^' I 

"//* you speak of a fly, a gnat, or a bee, " 
says Basil, ''your conversation will be a sort 
of demonstration of His power whose hand 
formed them; for the wisdom of the workman 
is commonly perceived in that which is of 
little size. He who has stretched out the 
heavens, and dug up the bottom of the sea, is 
also he who has pierced a passage through 
the sting of the bee for the injection of its 
poison. " 



HEMIPTERA 



A Bonny Boatman 



Boatman: Do you see my oars sticking straight out from 
the back part of my body? 

Glenn: I should call them legs instead of oars. 

Boatman: They serve me as both. I am called the Water 
Boatman, though my proper name is No-to-nec'ta glau'ca. My 
first name means one who swims on his back. I live in the 
water. 

Glenn: I see your body is shaped almost like a boat. 
Please tell us more about yourself. 

Boatman: I was born in water — hatched from an egg my 
mother placed ^1^ on the stalk of 

a water-plant. ^^%^ ^^^^^^^ .^^'^^ -'■ ^^^^ ^i^ l^g^? 
as all other in- ^^^^^^^^T sects have, but 



the two long ones be- ^ ^BH^ hind are very much 

like a pair of oars. mw They have small hairy 

fingers at the end. These W fingers enable me to push 
myself through the water at very great speed. 

Harold: Do you row about under the water .^ 

Boatman: To be sure. I can fly and also swim. 

Glenn: Do you have wings as well as oars t 

Boatman: Yes, four of them, and cases to put them in. 
When tired of rowing, I open my wing-cases half-way, push 
out my wings, and sit on top of the water by the hour. 

Harold: But you can not fly in the water. How do you 
get out of it when lying there on your back.^ 

Boatman: I go down deep, make several quick strokes 
with my oars, which bring me up into the air, then I spread my 
wings and fly away. 

II 



12 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Glenn: How can you breathe under water? 

Boatman: I have little openings called spiracles in the 
sides of my body. When I come to the top of the water, air 
gets in beneath my wing-cases, and enters the air-tubes. I 
am obliged to come often for air. If some wise man could 
invent a boat that would be able to propel itself under water, 
and then come out and be a flying-machine, he would be called 
a great man. I am like both of these, and am not great at all. 

Harold: But you did not make yourself, and your Creator 
is greater and wiser than all men. 

Boatman: True, and he has made a variety of insects. 

Glenn: What is an insect.^ 

Boatman: Your mother can tell you. I have a sharp beak, 
which hurts like the sting of a wasp. With it I suck the juice 
from a water-mite, and then throw its skin away. There is 
one coming now. I shall have it for my dinner. 

FOUR LIVES IN ONE 

Harold: Did you see the Water Boatman, mother, and 
hear his story .^ He said you could tell us something about 
insects. Will you please do so now.^^ 

Mother: The word insect means cut into. All true insects 
have three parts to their bodies, — the head, the thorax or chest, 
and the abdomen or body. An Insect, too, has 
three pairs of legs, six In all; and nearly all insects 
have two or four wings. Most Insects pass through eggs 
four changes during their lives: First, they are hatched from 
eggs; second, they become larvae. 

Harold: What are larvae.^ 

Mother: Larva means masked, or concealed, — that Is, 
you would not know by looking at the larva whether it was 
going to be a beetle or a butterfly. After the larvae change 
their skins several times, they are called pupae. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 13 

Harold: What does that mean? 

Mother: It means a baby or doll. A man named Linnaeus 
gave them this name, because he thought that in- 
sects while in this state looked like a baby wrapped 
in tight bands. 

Glenn: Then that was what I saw the other 
day, — a little gray case like a coffin, and I could 
see the head, feet, wings, and all wrapped up in 
it, like a mummy. Its outside case was so pretty. 
It was marked with black rings, and had little 
golden dots in different places. But I thought 
the little creature inside was dead. 

Mother: It was only sleeping, and probably if 
you had kept it a few days, a gay butterfly would 
have come out. While in the pupa state some in- 
sects take no food, others have a supply in their 
pupa-case. Many do not move at all, and seem to 
be dead, while others eat, grow, and move about 
LARVA inside their narrow home. At last the pupa be- 
comes an imago, or perfect insect. The word 
imago means that the insect is the image of 
its parent. Now do you remember the four 
changes an insect passes through during life? 
Harold: First, it is hatched from an t%^\ 
second, it becomes larva; third, pupa; fourth, 
it is known as an imago. 

Mother: Besides these four changes, an in- 
sect is really changing all the time. When a 
caterpillar is hatched, it begins to eat, and 
perhaps makes its first dinner of the egg-shell 
from which it came. 

Glenn: Is a caterpillar larva, mother? 

Mother: Yes. An insect while in the larval ^^^ imago, or perfect 




14 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



condition eats a great amount of food. It grows so fast it out- 
grows its skin as you outgrow your clothes. Finally the skin 
bursts open, and it crawls out in a bright new suit. Strangest 
of all, and yet true, it not only changes its outside skin, but 
the skin of its mouth, stomach, and all its inside organs comes 
off with the outside skin. This is called molting. 

Harold: We say chickens molt when their feathers come 
off, but insects do not have feathers. 

Mother: Many of them do. When seen through a micro- 
scope they have bright colors, and are decked in gay plumage. 
Glenn: What do insects eat.^ 

Mother: Everything you can think of, whether animal or 
vegetable. Many prey on other insects, and some suck blood 
from animals. Every plant furnishes them food. The com- 
mon nettle feeds thirty different kinds of insects, and two hun- 
dred feed on cabbage, and other insects that have already eaten 
it. They eat wood, leaves, roots, flowers, fruit, honey, cheese, 
clothes, furs, animals, — in fact, almost any substance that can 
be named. 

A LARGE FAMILY 
Glenn: How many kinds of insects are there .^ 
Mother: Thousands; I don't know how many; I don't 
think any one ever counted them. 

• Do they all belong to one family? 
They are divided into several general classes, 
or families. Each one of the family 
names ends with the Greek word ptera, 
which means wings. The first part of 
the family name tells something about 
the wings of the insect that bears the 
name. The first great family is called 
Dip'te-ra, which means two wings. Flies, mosquitoes, and 
gnats belong to this family. The second family is called 



Harold: 
Mother. 




BUTTERFLY 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



IS 



Hem-ip'te-ra, 




which means half wings 
family fleas 



this 
and 



Mother 
which means 



In 

lice, 
bugs are found. 

Glenn: That is like 
hemisphere, which 
means half a sphere, 
third family is called Lep-i-dop'te-ra, 
scaly wings. The insects in this family 
are moths and ^^^°^ butterflies. They are called Lep-i-dop'- 
te-ra because they have scales on their wings. 

Harold: Not scales like a fish.^ 

Mother: They overlap just the same, but you will learn 
more about that another time. The fourth class of insects is 
called Or-thop'te-ra, meaning straight 
wings. In this family we find cock- 
roaches, crickets, grasshoppers, and 
others. The fifth family has a rather 
long name, Hy-men-op'te-ra. It means 
membrane wings. To this family belong bees, wasps, and ants. 
Harold: Ants do not have wings. 

Mother: Later on we shall learn whether they do or not. 
The sixth family is called Neu-rop'te-ra, that is nerve wings. 
Dragon-flies, May-flies, and others belong to the Neu-rop'te-ra 
family. The seventh is called Col-e-op'te-ra, nleaning 
sheath wings. To that family belong the beetles. You 
know that there are five races of men, which are known 
as white, yellow, brown, red, and black. These are divided 
into a great number of smaller families, as are also insects. 
Harold: To what family do spi- 
ders, worms, 
1% and other creep- 
ing, crawling 
ANTS things belong.^ beetle 




GRASSHOPPER 





i6 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Mother: They can not properly be called insects; for 
we have learned that insects have three parts to their bodies, 
three pairs of legs, and that they nearly always have 
wings. When you look at a worm or spider, see if it 
has all these. 

Glenn: What are the things that stick out from 
the heads of insects? 

Mother: They are their horns, or antennae. They 
are not just like horns, for they have joints so they 
can be moved in any direction. It is supposed that 
with them an insect feels, hears, and smells, though 
their use is not fully known. 
Harold: Can insects see? 

Mother: Try to put your hand on a fly, and you 
will find out. Many insects have 
what are called compound eyes, 
that is, many eyes in one; and some- 
times one compound eye has many 
thousands of single eyes, or facets, 
as they are called. Here is a picture of one. 
Glenn: It looks like the seeds of a ripe sun- 
flower. How evenly they are set together! 

Mother: Yes, it is truly wonderful. I once looked 
at the eye of a fly through the microscope, arid when 
I saw God's work in making the eyes of such a com- 
mon insect, I felt like falling on my knees in prayer. 
The more closely we examine even the smallest thing 
he has made, the more we shall see that will inspire 
love for him. Did you know that God has given 
to the insects tools with which they get their living, build 
their houses, and do many wonderful things? 
Glenn: What kind of tools? 
Mother: They have saws, augers, spades, pumps, scissors. 




COMPOUND EYE 



WORM IS 

NOT 

AN INSECT 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



17 



knives, swords, and spinning-machines. Men are proud of the 
high buildings they erect; but they would build houses nearly 
a mile high if made as lofty as the ants' in proportion to their 
height. A flea, an eighth of an inch long, can jump a yard. 
A man ought to jump about half a mile at a single bound to 
equal a flea. 

Glenn: If we could jump like fleas, we should go through the 
air faster than an express-train. 

Mother: Yes, and compared with men, if size is taken into 
account, insects excel them in other things. This morning I 
saw an ant carry a dead fly two or three times larger than it- 
self up a straight wall. What should you think of a man who 
could walk upright like that carrying a heavy weight? But 
the ant did it without difficulty. 



A Noisy Insect 



Harold: What little wonders insects are! To what family 
does the Boatman who told us his story be- 
long? 

Mother: To the Hem-ip'te-ra family. 

Glenn: What other insects belong to his 
family ? 

Mother: The cicada (si-ka'da) is one. It 
lives in southern Europe, Africa, in parts of 
America, and in the islands of the sea. It loves 
to stay on the branches of trees when the sun 
shines hot. Sometimes large grasshoppers are 
mistaken for it. I see one on the branch of that 
tree. Keep quiet, and we shall let it talk to you. 

Glenn: How do you do, Mr. Cicada? Some people think 
that you look like a grasshopper, but I do not think that you 
are like them. 




MALE CICADA 



1 8 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Cicada: Look at my picture, and you will say I am not at 
all like a grasshopper. You will notice that I have no long 
hind legs. My body is thick and heavy, my head is broad, 
and four gauzy wings cover my back. I have three very large 
eyes set like this .*. in my forehead, and short antennae, or 
horns. 

Harold: Do you have thousands of eyes in each one of the 
three 1 

Cicada: No, they are not compound, but simple eyes like 
your own. Mrs. Cicada is one of the insects that carries an 
auger, and with it she makes holes in the bark of trees, where 
she lays her eggs. 

Glenn: Is the auger in her head.^ 

Cicada: It is in the back part of her body. When not in 

use it lies in a little groove made to receive it. The auger has 
three parts; one is so strong and sharp that when she sticks 
it into a tree it keeps her from falling while at work; the other 
two have teeth like a saw, which move up and down. She can 
bore deep holes in the wood. I sing all the time she is at 
work. I have a very strong voice. Some people seem to think 
it not very musical, but it sounds good to me. The Greeks 
loved our song so well they shut us up in wickerwork cages that 
they might hear our joyous Cree, cree, cree, rapidly repeated. 
When you sing you use your throat, but my song is produced 
by organs on the under side of my body. I have two horny 
plates which cover two deep cells, and in the bottom of each 
cell is found what looks like a tiny mirror. It is really mem- 
brane, but shines like brightest glass, and in it can be seen all 
the colors of the rainbow. These cells are like two little win- 
dows through which you can look into my body. 

Glenn: What makes the noise .^ 

Cicada: In the cells I have told you about are two little 
drums. In my back there are two strong muscles which move 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 19 

these drums quickly backward and forward, and that makes 
the sound. You would not expect a boy with two drums to be 
very quiet, and no more can I be. 

Glenn: What do you eat.^ 

Cicada: We suck the sap of trees. 

Glenn: Do your children change to larvae and pupae when 
they hatch from the eggs in their tree nest.^* 

Cicada: Certainly. The larvae are small and white at first. 
They leave their nest, crawl down the tree trunk, eat its roots, 
and keep growing. They remain in the pupa state all winter, 
and in the spring crawl out of the ground, hook themselves on to 
the tree, and then crawl out of their pupa-case, or skin. They 
leave their skins where they came out of them. The larvae 
are very weak at first, but the warm sun strengthens them, 
and they soon join the Cree, cree, cree chorus. You would not 
find it easy to catch one of us, for we are easily frightened, and 
fly away at the slightest sound. 

FROGGIE FROTH 

Iva: Where did the froth on these leaves come from? It 
looks as if made of tiny bubbles. 

Froggie Froth: Allow me to introduce myself. My proper 
name is Aph-roph'o-ra, which means, the foam 
I carry. I am also called Froghopper and 
Frog-spit; when I am full grown, I jump like 
a frog. You may call me Froggie Froth if you froggie froth 
like. Here is a picture of one of my brothers, but it is about ten 
times as big as he was. 

Iva: Are you a perfect insect now.^ 

Froggie Froth: No; I am in my larval state. Soon I shall 
change to pupa, and after that shall look like the picture. 

Glenn: Where does all this froth come from.^ 

Froggie Froth: I made it; it is the house in which I live, 




20 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

and is made of little bubbles. I have a very delicate green 
skin, which must be kept moist, so I climb on the stalk of somxc 
plant and suck its juice. Then I place myself on a leaf, and 
keep moving my body. Soon a little bubble comes out, then 
another, and another till I am all covered up in my bubble 
house. 

Glenn: Do the bubbles last.^ 

Froggie Froth: For a while, and I keep making more to 
take the place of those that melt away; otherwise my body 
would soon dry up and I should die, just as a fish does w^hen 
taken out of water. My bubble house protects me from the 
air and heat as I am now, but when I am ready to change from 
larva to pupa I can make part of the bubbles dry up so there 
will be a little dry room inside in which the change is made. 
This takes place in September. My skin splits open along my 
head and chest. I leave my bubble mansion, and have a pair 
of wings. My sisters move slowly about, but my brothers are 
champion jumpers. Though so small, they can leap more 
than six feet. For this reason they are sometimes called flea 
grasshoppers. 

A GREAT ATHLETE 

Glenn: There you go, hop, hop, hop ! What is your name, 

please.^ 

Flea: My proper name is Pu'lex 
ir'ri-tans, but I am known as the 
flea. This is my photograph, but 
the picture made me many times 
larger than I really am. How fa/ 
can you jump.^ 

Glenn: O, a long way; six or 
HUMAN FLEA (mag- \ scvcu f cct, I thiuk ! 

^^™^ \ Flea: As little as I am, I can 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 21 

jump half that distance myself. If I were as big as you, I 
believe I could jump a mile. That is the way I keep alive, for 
you folks seem to take special delight in killing me. 

Hazel: But you bite us, Mrs. Pulex. See that bi'g blotch 
on my wrist where you bit me a minute ago! 

Flea: If you had two long, sharp knives with saw-like edges, 
and should stick them into things, I am sure it would show 
more than that. 

Iva: Do you have two knives ? 

Flea: Yes; and they are kept in a little covered case, or 
tube, so they will not get broken. I can eat a lot of blood for 
one of my size, and I need sharp tools to get it with. Baron 
Walckenaer, in the "Natural History of Insects," says that 
in Paris he saw what were called the learned fleas. Thirty of 
them went through exercises like soldiers, standing on their 
hind legs, and carrying small splints of wood. Two fleas were 
harnessed to a golden carriage having four wheels. A third flea 
was seated in the carriage and acted as coachman, holding a 
splinter of wood for a whip. Two other fleas drew a tiny can- 
non on its carriage. These and other wonders were performed 
on polished glass. The fleas that acted the part of horses wore 
a gold chain fastened to their hind legs, which was never taken 
off. When seen by Baron Walckenaer, they had lived thus 
for two and a half years, and not one had died. 

Iva: Fleas are so small I don't see how people could see 
them performing as you say. 

Flea: Those who came to see the fleas looked through mag- 
nifying-glasses, so you will know that the golden carriage and 
other things drawn by them were smaller than anything you 
can think of. 

Harold: What did they have to eat? 

Flea: They were placed on a man's arm and sucked his 
blood. When they became lazy and did not wish to work, the 



22 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



man took a burning coal and moved it about near them; that 
woke them up in a short time, and they began to perform. 

Glenn: Where do you Hve? 

Flea: We are found in nearly all countries, and thrive best 
among dirty people. Our eggs are laid in the cracks of floors 
and in old rubbish. 

Hazel: Are there any other kinds of fleas ? 

Flea: Yes; there are cat fleas, dog fleas, and those that live 
on pigeons and poultry. 



SWEET SUMMER-TIME 



The wonder season of the year. 
Sweet summer, comes again, 

When everywhere, afar and near, 
In every field and glen, 



The dewy mornings gaily call 
In bird-notes sweet and strong, 

Come forth to labor, one and all; 
The noontide comes erelong, 




^^'ism.: 



The happy insects, birds, and bees, 
The waving grass and nodding trees, 
The rolling fields and wayside nook. 
The hazy hills and babbling brook, 
Are filled with life and song. 



When shepherds seek the meadow-land, 
And in the stream the cattle stand. 
When through the drowsy afternoon 
All nature calls with soothing croon, 
" O, rest with me and grow ! " 
— Max Hill. 



DO YOU STOSE ? 

Do you s'pose little flies, with their thousands of eyes, 
When their mama is busy with tea, | 

Ever climb on the chairs and get in her way, . 
/^nd cry, " Lemme see ! Lemme see /" 



Do you s^pose little fish, when their mamas wish 

To take a short nap, — just a wink, — I 

Ever pound on the door with their soft little fins, | 

And whimper, '' Please gi^me a d^ink^^F | 

I 
Do you s^pose little bees, as they hum in the trees, j 

And find where the honey-sweets lurk. 
Ever ask of their papa, who'' s busy near by, 

I know — but what for must I work V I 

I 

Do you s^pose, do you s^pose that any one knows 

Of a small boy who might think awhile 
Of all this and more ? You do ? So I thought, 

And now let us see if heUl smile. j 

Babyland. 



DIPTERA 



The Common Fly 

Harold: Here you are, Mr. Fly. Now please talk to us, 
as Water Boatman and Froggie Froth did. 

Fly: What do you want me to tell? 

Glenn: How you can walk up and down that window-pane 
without falling. 

Fly: I have little suckers on my feet, which hold me, so I 
can run about with my head down as well as any other way. 

Glenn: How old are you.^ 

Fly: One month to-day. 

Harold: Only a month .^ Why, you are as big as you will 
ever be. Did you look at first as you do now? 

Fly: 0, no! I was hatched from a tiny egg laid by my fly 
mother. At first I was a little grub, or worm, about one third 
of an inch long. I had rings around my body, and on the 
rings were hooks. I kept eating all I could, and so grew. My 
skin got hard in about a week, and it made a very nice little 
pupa-case like a barrel-shaped coffin. Had you seen me then, 
you might have thought I had no life. While in my little coffin 
my legs grew first, then my wings, after that my head, eyes, 
naouth, and my trunk, or tube. After two weeks I began to 
knock with my head. The end of my coffin flew open, and I 
turned from a worm into a wonder. I stood awhile in the 
bright sunshine; for I felt cold and weak. I kept shaking my 
wings till they were dry. All the wrinkles came out, and I 
began to fly about just as I do now, looking for something 
to eat. 

Glenn: But I don't understand yet how you can walk on 
the ceiling without falling. 

25 





Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Fly: There are two claws on each of my 
feet, and under each is a tiny cushion. Some 
very wise men say there are twelve hun- 
dred hairs on each cushion, though how 
they found out I am sure I do not know. 
Each hair has a little knob on the end, and 
from these comes a sticky gum which holds 
me to the surface on which I am walking. 
Harold: A little while ago I saw you 
FOOT OF FLY (MAGNIFIED) rubbiug your legs over your body, and then 
twisting and rubbing them together. Why did you do that? 

Fly: I was combing my hair. My body is cov- 
ered with short hairs, and those on my legs are stiff, 
so I can use them as a comb and brush. In this 
way I keep myself clean and neat. 

Glenn: I think your wings are beautiful, but why 
don't you fold them up close to your body when not using 
them? 

Fly: Because they were made to stand out straight. I have 
but two wings, while many insects have four. 

Harold: How can you tell when we try to catch you? 
Fly: I can see you with my eyes. 

Iva: You must have eyes in the back of your head then. 
Fly: Each of my eyes is made of thousands of little eyes, 
or facets, which enable me to see in all directions at once. 
When a sly boy or girl tries to creep up and catch me, I fly 
away. My eyes enable me to protect myself. Once a woman 
caught one of my brothers and looked at one of his eyes through 
a microscope. She said it was truly wonderful, and that it 
looked like a great half-ball set with the tiniest bright stones, 
all in the form of perfect little squares. I am told there are 
four thousand of these little facets, though I never counted 
them. When you think how small my eye really is, and yet 



COMBING ITS 
HAIR 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 27 

how perfectly it Is made, it should cause you to love the One 
who made you and me. I have heard that some insects have 
as many as twenty-hve thousand eyes. You see it is the same 
as though we were in a room covered with mirrors; we can see 
all around us. 

Hazel: What is that little tube with which you go about 
touching everything? 

Fly: That serves me as a mouth, and for hands, and with 
it I can tell what is good to eat. 

Harold: Will you tell us how you breathe? 

Fly: There are several small openings in my body through 
which the air enters at each side. 

Iva: Do you have bones? , 

Fly: No; my hard and horny skin serves me instead of 
bones. I believe that is the way all insects are made. 

Glenn: What is your family name? 

Fly: I belong to the Dip'te-ra family. 

Harold: I don't see what good you do in the world. 

Fly: All over the world animals are dying, and the bad 
odors from their bodies would cause much sickness among the 
people. We lay thousands of eggs in these dead bodies, which 
soon hatch, and the larvae, or worms, eat the flesh from the 
bones, and they soon dry up. A man named Linnaeus says 
that only three flies and their children could eat up a dead 
horse as quickly as could a lion. 

Hazel: But you carry germs of sickness, and we shall put 
up wire screens to keep you out of the house. We shall also 
keep the premises clean so there will be but few flies. 

Fly: Since you dislike me so much I am sure you would 
not care to have some of my relatives near you; such as, 
the bot-fly, which hurts cattle; the gad-fly, which troubles 
sheep; and the tsetse fly, which is so dangerous to domestic 
animals in Africa. 



28 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




^HEll^W ___ 




A fly 

To my eye 
Is a wonderful thing. 
He buzzes about all the day on his wing — 
A^ossamer, flibberty, gibberty thing. 

You wouldn't surmise ^ 

A thing of his size 
Had strength for all the tasks that he tries 
For instance, to-day 
I was reading away - 
Of fairies and gnomes and the pranks that they play, 
When a fly 
Came by, 
And then he began 
On a horrible plan 

Of worrying, 
Flurrying, 
Scurrying in, 
And flickering the ends of my nose and 'my chin, 
Until I'd 
Liked to died 
With wrath and chagrin. 
Now I'm a big thing — 
The fly he was small. 
He'd hop and he'd fling, 
He'd buzz and he'd sing, 
While I would do nothing at all 
But whack at that fly 
Each time he came by 
Deep wrath in my eyeT 
I never could hit him" however I'd try; 
I whacked for two hours 
With all of my powers; 
And when it was done 
I sat weary 
And teary — 
While he was as afresh as when he had begun. 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 29 

Bottle of Blue 

Fly: Here comes my cousin Bluebottle. She will talk to 
you while I go to dinner. 

Bluebottle: I am trying to find a pantry where there is some 
meat. I am known as the meat-fly, and blow-fly, as well as 
Bluebottle, because I always lay my eggs in meat, either cooked 
or raw, if I can find it. A slice of cooked beef or mutton is 
exactly to my taste, and I place my eggs on it in neat little 
packets, which are very much like the little asparagus bundles 
your mother buys, only the eggs are so very, very small. 

Iva: What a strange place to lay your eggs! 

Bluebottle: The meat furnishes both cradle and food for 
my children. In twenty-four 
hours after I leave the eggs, 
they hatch; then they are larvae 
for a month, though I suppose 
you would call them worms. 

They are very hungry, and at once bury / '^^iP \ fly 
themselves in the meat and begin to eat. 
They grow very fast, and change their skin often, but do not 
cast oif their last suit; it turns hard and yellow, then red, then 
black, and this forms their pupa-case, in which they take their 
long sleep before they become Bluebottles like myself. Before 
entering the pupa state they leave the meat, and go into the 
ground. 

Harold: How do they get out of that little bottle, or pupa- 
case .^ 

Bluebottle: The pupa is covered with a thin skin, or sheath. 
Each leg, each wing, the body, and the head are wrapped sepa- 
rately, as your glove has a place for each finger of your hand. 
There it lies like a mummy in its wrappings all winter. When 
it wakes up, it makes an opening in its pupa-case. 




BLUEBOTTLE 



30 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Iva: How does it do that? 

Bluebottle: It comes out at the end where the head is. It 
is like two half-cups fitted together. Its head swells out and 
then gets small, swells out again, and keeps this up till smash 
goes one of the half-cups, then the other, and out comes the 
Bluebottle. 

Harold: I have been looking at that strange trunk, or tube, 
you carry. 

Bluebottle: I use it to suck liquids, and with it also eat 
solid things, like sugar. My trunk does not move, but my lips 
go up and down, round and round in every direction. I mois- 
ten sugar with water, which comes from my trunk when I wish 
it. If the sugar does not melt quickly enough, I work or knead 
it with my lips, and it soon becomes soft, so I can suck it 
through my tube. 

Harold: When we have hard things to eat; we cut them 
with a knife. 

Bluebottle: I am sure you do not carry a knife in your 
mouth all the time. That is what I do. A man named Reau- 
mur took much time to study my trunk and mouth. He knew 
that many juices of which flies are fond, are covered up, as in 
fruit, and those flies that suck blood must pierce the skin. 
He thought in order to do these things we must have a sharp 
knife or lance; so he kept hunting for it, and at last found it in 
the upper part of the trunk, hid in a little groove, and covered 
in a small case. 

Hazel: Are there any other kinds of flies that belong to the 
Dip'te-ra family.^ 

Bluebottle: Hundreds of them. Here comes my friend 
Pegomyioe, whom we call Peggy for short. She can tell 
you some very interesting things concerning herself and 
our other relatives, and I am sure she will be glad to do so if 
you will ask her. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



31 



OTHER FLIES 

Harold: Tell us, Peggy, how your larvae become flies? 
Peggy: Perhaps I ought to say, first, that my children are 
all miners. We are much smaller than Bluebottle, so I am 
sure you could never guess where we make our mines, and 
what for. 

Iva: Do tell us, then. 

Peggy: We dig them in leaves. We like sorrel or thistle 
leaves best. When my eggs hatch, the 
larvae dig tunnels in the soft, pulpy part 
of the leaf. They are so small that you 
can not see them unless you hold the leaf 
between yourself and the light. 
Hazel: What do they dig with.^ 
P^ggy- With a tiny hook fastened to 
the head. When their galleries are fin- 
ished, the green part of the leaf is gone. 
They eat it for food. Think of making 
a home inside a leaf! Cousin Or'ta-lis 
eats cherries for breakfast, dinner, and 
supper. She is only one twelfth of an thistle 

inch long, but you may find her babies eating the cherries you 
wanted yourself. Cousin Da'cus is about half as large as the 
house-fly. She has very pretty wings, — gold, pink, and blue, 

— and she jumps about as though she 

could not keep still a minute. She 

places her eggs under the skin of young 

olives when they are growing, putting 

only one ^^^ in each olive. As she lays 

three or four hundred eggs in a season, 

she causes great loss to olive growers. 

The baby Dacus bores holes in the 

fruit; then you would not care to eat it. 





OLIVES 



32 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Glenn: Have you any more cousins o,r second cousins? 
Peggy: Yes, many, many m.ore. One of my cousins is 
noted for her large family. A Frenchman took special pains 
to study her habits, and he says she has twenty thousand chil- 
dren at one time. Each one wears a thin white dress. If 
meat Is placed near them, they eat greedily. Have you ever 
seen In a field of wheat or rye some stalks bent downward as 
though beaten down by hall or trampled by cattle.^ 
Harold: Yes, I saw some that way last year. 
Peggy: If you had looked carefully above the lowest knot 
on the stem, or stalk, you would have found the larvae of the 
Hessian fly hard at work. This fly was noticed first In North 
America during the war for Independence, 
and many supposed that it was brought across 
the sea In the baggage of the Hessian troops. 
That gave it its name. This is Its picture. 
On land It flies six feet at a time. In thir- 
teen years it traveled two hundred miles 
LARVA, WHEAT STALK from thc sca. Aftcr this the people in Eng- 
sHowiNG LARVA j^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ frightcucd, for thcy thought 

the Hessian fly had been brought in grain from America to 
England. They appointed a great council to see what should 
be done. Was it not strange that so small an insect should 
raise such a commotion.^ But little things do cause a deal 
of trouble sometimes. 

Harold: Are there no insects except flies in the Dip'te-ra 
family t 

Peggy: Yes, many of them, but I think the flies number 
more than the others, for in one family of flies alone there are 
more than a thousand different kinds, so you see they can 
hardly be numbered. But here comes one of the Dip'te-ra 
family, singing as it flies, and it is not a fly either. But I 
shall let it tell you about Itself. Farewell. 




HESSIAN FLY : PUPA, 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest ' 33 

A Bold Burglar 

Harold: Do you belong to the Dip'te-ra family, Mr/ Mos- 
quito? 

Mosquito: So I am told; but I have been ill-treated all 
my life. 

Glenn: But you stick your sharp lance into our skin, and 
steal our blood. 

Mosquito: It Never. Perhaps it is not polite to say it, 
but that is what my sisters do. I live only a 
little while, stay in the woods nearly all the 
time, and never touch a drop of blood. 

Iva: Where did you come from.^ 

Mosquito: My mother laid her eggs m 
stagnant pool. They were glued fast 
together, and floated about like a little 
boat. When the eggs hatched, and 
we became larvae, we dropped into the 
water, ^nd there I had many a frolic 
with my brothers and sisters and neigh- 
bors. One day some children came 
to our pool and dipped up some of 
the water in their hands, and some 
of my brothers and sisters were 
caught. As the children looked at them 
they said, "See the wigglers." I suppose 
they gave us that name because, when we 
are in the water, our heads hang down, and 
we breathe through our long tails, which 
stick straight up. When we are frightened, 
we hurry, or wiggle, to the bottom of the 
water to get out of sight; but we soon have 
to come up again to get breath. 

WIGGLERS 
3 




34 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Iva: Please tell us, Mr. Mosquito, how you got your wmgs. 
I am sure you did not have any when you were in the water. 

Mosquito: At last we got so sleepy after wiggling about a 
good while, that we all went fast asleep right on top of the 
water. One pleasant day I woke up and found that I was no 
longer a wiggler. I raised up my head, and found I had six 
long slim legs; but, best of all, I had a pair of wings, though I 
did not know how to use them. I felt weak and trembling, 
and sat very still in my little boat of dried-up skin till my 
wings were dry, and then I flew to a bush and began hunting 
for something to eat. 

Glenn: Do you live in all parts of the world? 

Mosquito: Nearly all, I believe. In India, Australia, the 
Pacific islands, and other warm countries, my sisters are such 
a pest that the people who live there are compelled to cover 
their beds with netting, or they could not sleep at all. Another 
thing that causes people to dislike our family is that we are 
said to carry diseases from one person to another, such as ma- 
laria and yellow fever. In some places we are killed while we 
are yet larvae by pouring kerosene into the pools where we live. 

Harold: Are there any mosquitoes larger than yourself.^ 

Mosquito: O, yes! I am quite small compared with some 
of our family. There are the Striped Stockings, so called be- 
cause they have black and white markings on their legs. They 
will outbuzz and outsting almost any number of mosquitoes 
the size of my sisters. A dozen of them in a room will cause 
the people to retreat in haste. 

Hazel: I once read that mosquitoes light on the heads of 
tadpoles and young trout when they come to the surface of the 
water, and that their bite causes the fish to die and float down- 
stream, and the tadpoles' tails become swollen and bleed. 

Mosquito: I have never seen anything of that kind, though 
it is possible others have. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 35 

Harold: I read a strange story by C. C. Abbott, who has 
spent much time studying many kinds of insects. He says : — 

"I once witnessed a remarkable flight of mosquitoes. . . . 
The sky was clear, and while I was rowing slowly down the 
creek, suddenly, almost between winks, I saw a long, narrow 
line of dark gray cloud rising rapidly and extending over half 
the western horizon. 

''In a few minutes I heard a faint, humming sound which 
grew louder and louder, and I thought of a tornado. I was too 
frightened to plan for my safety, and indeed there was no 
time in which to act. Heading for the shore, I reached an 
overhanging elm, and clinging to a projecting root, I waited 
the oncoming of the supposed tornado. 

"It came, but not as wind. The tempest proved to be a 
cloud of mosquitoes. It rose higher and higher as it ap- 
proached, and when directly overhead it quite cleared the tree 
tops. Nevertheless, it was an unpleasant though a novel 
experience to be beneath such a cloud. 

''Had a sudden change in the wind checked their course and 
caused them to settle, I do not suppose I could have escaped 
being fatally stung by them. A rough estimate made on the 
spot led to the conclusion that this cloud of mosquitoes was 
half a mile wide, and one hundred yards from front to rear. 
The depth of the mass I could not see, but it excluded the 
sunlight. The sound, as they passed, is best described by 
likening it to a long train of cars passing over a bridge. 

"My duties as a naturalist called me to ascertain if the 
meadows were unusually free from these pests after the exodus 
of so many millions, but I could not see that this was the case. 

"By careless exposure of my hands and face on the follow- 
ing evening, I found that there were enough left to make a night 
in the marsh exceedingly painful, if not dangerous, through 
their attacks." 



HYMENOPTERA 



Bees 

Iva: Won't you tell us something about yourself, Miss Bee? 
You always seem so very busy, but we should like to hear your 
story. 

Bee: Yes, I am busy. I have no time to spend In idle talk, 
but it is too cold for me to do much this morning. I suppose 
you have read about bees in your Bible. 

Glenn: A swarm went Into the body of a lion Samson had 
killed, and stored their honey there. At another time some 
honey that bees had made, dropped on the ground, and a prince 
who was leading an army came where it was, and was refreshed 
by eating just a little. 

Bee: At that time bees were called Deborah, though who 
gave us that name I do not know. Our habits have been 
studied by wise men for thousands of years. The Greeks and 
Romans believed many fables concerning us. Some thought 
we were born in dead oxen, others that we came from lions; 
and if we were small and weak, then they thought we sprang 
from a calf. The Greeks gave us a pretty name, Melissa. 
One man spent sixty-eight years observing our ways, and an- 
other devoted his whole lifetime to studying our habits. The 
ancient Egyptians carved pictures of us on their monuments 
in their strange writing. 

Glenn: Yes, I have seen it. It looked like this. I have 

^ 7— -s^ ' read that In Egypt the bee was the em- 

A^^ ( |6<r::>^J blem of the people who obeyed the 
king. 

Bee: I have heard that Napoleon had figures of bees made 
on his royal mantle, so you see great men have thought it worth 

36 



i 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



37 




TRUNK OF BEE 



their while to notice us. Still very little was known of our 
ways till glass hives were invented. Look at my body and see 
how well it is adapted to the purpose for which it was created. 
Hazel: Do you belong to the Dip'te-ra family.^ 
Bee: O, no! My family name is Hy-men-op'te-ra. Ptera 
means wings, and the other part means membrane. My name 
comes from the fact that I have four transparent wings. 
Glenn: I thought bees had only two wings. 
Bee: No, four. There are three kinds of bees, — queens, 
drones, and workers. 

Iva: Which kind are you,^ 

Bee: I am a worker. This is a picture of my mouth, made 
very much larger than it really is, 
so you can see its different parts. 
My trunk, or tongue, is the longest. 
If you should see it through a 
microscope, you could see the tiny hairs with which it is 
covered. These collect the juice of flowers, as I twist and 
bend my trunk about in them. This juice is taken into my 
mouth and then into my first stomach, or honey pouch. 

Hazel: My auntie saw your trunk through a microscope, 
and thought it beautiful. The hairs were golden brown, and 
some of them glistened like silver, perhaps be- 
cause of the honey on them. 

Bee: While gathering honey my body gets 
covered with a yellow dust called pollen. I 
think you have seen it on flowers. 
Harold: How do you get it off? 
Bee: My legs are furnished with fine little 
brushes, with which I brush myself all over. 
The pollen is formed into tiny balls, which I 
carry home in little baskets on my hind legs. 
In this enlarged picture you can see the little 

LEG OF BEE ' 




38 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



shelf or basket in which I carry pollen. I have three pairs of 
legs, and these, with my trunk, are my tools. 
Iva: What do you do with the pollen 1 

Bee: We feed it to the young bees, and it is part of our own 
food. We also carry pollen to the blossoms of fruit-trees, so 
there is a harvest of apples, peaches, pears, and cherries. 
Hazel: Do you have eyes like the fly. Miss Bee ? 
Bee: Yes, compound eyes, or many eyes in one. My four 
wings carry me swiftly through the air, and I sometimes fly long 
distances to find honey and pollen. If I am working among 
flowers on trees, J fly up high, and then go to them straight and 
swift as an arrow. 

Glenn: I see you have light- and dark-brown rings on 
your body. 

Bee: Yes, I am an Italian bee. Some of my relatives are 
darker in color, and not so amiable in temper. 

Hazel: In the British Museum auntie saw a picture that 
compares the sting of the wasp with the finest, sharpest needle. 

When placed under a 
microscope, the needle 
looks as though it were 
c o*v e r e d with little 
knobs and rough 
places, and ends in a 
very blunt point; while 
the sting tapers grace- 
fully, has a smooth sur- 
face like glass, and ends 
in a perfect point. 
Bee: This compari- 
son shows the work of God is more perfect than that of men. 
Glenn: Does the sting hurt because it is so sharp? 

The sharper it is the less it hurts, but the lance pierces 





Drawings showing how much sharper the sting of a 
wasp is than the point of a pin or needle. Of course the 
drawings are greatly magnified, a. Point of a pin; b, 
point of a needle ; c, sting of wasp. 



i 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 39 

the skin, and poison flows from a little bag into the wound, 
causing pain and swelling. 

Harold: When Mr. Roosevelt was in Africa, he found if the 
bees were disturbed in their nests they tried to sting everybody 
in sight. Sometimes the crews of boats were driven into the 
water, and men and animals that could not reach a place of 
safety were stung to death. 

Iva: Are there any bees that do not sting .^ 

Bee: There are some in South America smaller than we are, 
and having very hairy bodies, that do not sting. They can not 
live where it is cold. Our drones and queens do not sting 
people. 

Hazel: What are drones ? 

Bee: Our brothers. They are larger than I am, and more 
hairy. They make a loud buzzing sound as though they were 
hard at work, but are so lazy that even 
though they might be in a hive filled with 
honey they would starve to death unless 
we fed them. We let them stay in the 
hive till the honey season is nearly over, 
'then hustle them out. Three or four 
workers chase them about, pull their legs ^ -d^o^^ 

and their wings, and sting them to death. Or else we do not 
feed them, and let them starve. We also destroy the larvse 
and pupae which produce them. 

THE QUEEN BEE 

Iva: Did you say you have a queen. Miss Bee.^ 

Bee: Perhaps you would call her the mother bee, for she is 
treated as children should treat their mothers. If our queen 
is well and happy, all is order and contentment in our home. 

Harold: Does she look like a working bee.^ 

Bee: Her body is larger and longer. From these pictures 




40 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 





of a queen, a drone, and myself, you will see how we differ in 
size and appearance. The queen lays all the eggs that pro- 
duce bees. She sometimes lays 200 eggs 
a day, or over a million during her lifetime. 

Glenn: I wish 
we had a few hens 
that would lay 
eggs like that. 

Bee: Our 
queen lays one ^%% 
in each cell of the 

honeycomb. The eggs are little white mites 
about a sixteenth of an inch in length. For 
all they are so small, if all the eggs one queen lays were placed 
end to end, they would reach over a mile. 

Hazel: Do all bees come from the same kind of eggs 1 
Bee: Yes; whether an ^%% produces a drone, worker, or 
queen depends on the kind of food with which the larva is fed, 
and also on the kind of cell in which it is reared. 
Iva: Do you feed the baby bees t 

Bee: Yes. The ^'g'g hatches in three days, and is then larva.- 
Harold: Are all bees larvae and pupae before they grow up t 
Bee: Every true insect passes through those stages the first 
part of its life. These little white babies are very small, and 
we think they are pretty. We feed them carefully for five 
days, then cover them up tightly in their cradle cells. The 
baby bee first eats all the food we give it, then spins a little 
silk blanket in which it wraps itself. It goes to sleep, and in 
three weeks it wakes up a full-grown bee. 
Glenn: How does it get out of its cell.^ 

Bee: When it is ready, we assist and support it till it be- 
comes quite strong. If it is a worker, it begins to work like 
the rest of us as soon as it comes from its cell. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



41 




Hazel: Please tell us how an tgg becomes a queen bee. 

Bee: This picture shows the size of the cradle cells of drones, 
working bees, and queens. The queen cell is made much 
larger than that of the working bee or drone. It is rough and 
uneven on the outside, like a peanut. The 
larva in such a cell is fed different food 
from what the common bees eat. If the 
Q:%g which would produce a working bee 
were placed in a royal cell before it is three 
days old, it would become a queen. You 
see the cradle and food have much to do 
with it. It takes thirteen days for the tgg 
which produces a queen to hatch. Be- 
fore the queen is ready for her duties, she 
rests twenty-four hours. During that 
time we hover round her, brush her, and 
offer her honey. After that she goes out- 
side the hive and flies around for a little 
time, then returns to the hive, and never 
goes outside again unless it is when the whole hive swarms. 

Glenn: Does every swarm have a queen .f^ 

Bee: It sometimes happens that one has none, but when 
this is so the bees are in the greatest disorder; they stop work, 
begin to steal from other colonies, and starve to death. 

Iva: If one queen dies, can the swarm get another.^ 

Bee: It can if there are any eggs in the hive less than three 
days old. If one is found, it is tended with the greatest 
care. When it becomes larva, it is turned over many times in 
its cell, and a bee is appointed to give it royal food and watch 
over it for twelve days. When the proper time comes, the cell 
is closed, and all wait for the new queen to appear. Eggs which 
produce drones are put in larger cells than those of the work- 
ing bees, and it takes them four days longer to develop. The 



CRADLE CELLS OF BEES 

A, Cell of queen bee; B, cells 
of drones; C, cells of worker 
bees. 



42 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

larvae of drones have their heads downward in the cells, while 
the queen bees have theirs upward. 

Hazel: Do queen bees gather honey? 

Bee: No; their mouths are not fitted for that work, and 
they have all they can do to keep the hive supplied with eggs. 
They never sting except to sting another queen bee. When 
young queens are coming out of their cells, the old queen would 
sting them to death if the workers did not protect them. 
Sometimes two queens are found in the same hive, and then a 
royal battle is fought, which ends in one of them being stung 
to death. Francois Huber tells of a battle he saw between two 
queens which came out of their cells at about the same time. 
Iva: Please tell us about it. 

Bee: As soon as they saw each other, they were in a rage 
and rushed together in fury. When their bodies touched, and 

each could have stung the other, they 
let go their hold and ran away. They 
soon met again in the same manner, 
and again separated and ran away. 
The working bees were much disturbed. 
Twice they held the queen bees as 
prisoners for over a minute. The 
third time they came together, the 
stronger queen rushed on her rival 
when she did not see her coming, seized 
her by the wing, and stung her. The 
wounded queen walked slowly and 
painfully away, and soon died. After killing all other queens 
in the hive, the one that is left hunts for royal cells from which 
others might come, tears them open, stings the larvae, and 
keeps up her efforts until there is no queen in that hive except 
herself. 

Glenn: What if a strange queen came to the hive.^ 




BEE LARVAE 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 43 

Bee: There are guards at the door that would not let her 
enter. They would surround her and keep her a prisoner until 
she was starved or suffocated. They do not sting unless some 
one tries to rescue her. Sometimes men take our queen away 
and put another in her place. This does not please us. We 
stop all work, run hither and thither, and keep up a loup 
buzzing all the time. If our queen comes back, we become 
quiet and work as we did befor-e. If a new queen is brought 
instead of the old one, we try to smother her if it is not more 
than half a day since the old one left. If she is not brought 
to the hive for twenty-four hours, we receive her gladly. A 
guard is appointed to escort her about the hive. The bees pat 
her, offer her honey, and there is a joyful buzz and flutter to 
show that we are pleased and happy because we have not been 
left without a mother. 

Harold: Tell us how you live and work in your hive. 

Bee: The working bees do not have to learn their trade. 
As soon as they come out of their cells they are busy, and need 
no one to tell them what flowers contain honey, how to gather 
it, how to find pollen, or how to feed their young. 

Hazel: How many workers are there in a hive? 

Bee: Some have more than others, but I should say there 
are from fifteen thousand to forty thousand, 

Iva: I should think that would be more than could live 
in one hive. 

Bee: When this happens, some of us leave to make a new 
home. This leave-taking is called ''swarming." 

Hazel: Do many leave the hive at once.^ 

Bee: Yes, thousands. When about to swarm, we seem 
to lose our senses, and act as if mad. Our queen rushes about 
trying to destroy the young queens soon to leave their cells; 
but the workers will not permit her to do this. Then she 
runs all over the hive, followed by some of the workers. 



44 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




The excitement becomes very 
great, and finally, with the 
queen leading, we rush to the 
door, and soon the air is filled 
with bees flying back and 
forth. 

Harold: I thought queen 
bees could not fly far. 

Bee: That is true of ^ her- 
at first, for she soon gets tired 
and lights on the branch of a . 
tree or some other objec.t.. • We ; 
all gather together 'ah4 for^n^^■a;■■GM;$itieK^ to the size 

of the swarm. . Sometimes/we:-'s'en3;:^^^^^^ to find a home 

before swarming, f If • they •■'ai;G.'.:sU;^^^^^ rise In the air, 

and fly swiftly to'o]iv-'r\€y^:-&0^^;^%^^ those 

who keep bees have all^■empt;y:"v&^^^^^ shaken into 

it, and are soon hard'a.fewpi^^&ri^^^^ and honey. 

Glenn: How Ibng/do-'biesJ^liye^^^^ ■■ 

Bee: A queen may/liyjqVjfa.u;^^^^^^ the drones live as 

long as we see fit todet^Mi^m^J-^ like myself live only a 

i;-;;ni6nth 'during the busy sea- 

' rsouy-for we work so hard. The 

|>length of our lives depends on 

the" time of the season when 

we are hatched, for some of us 

live through a long winter. 

Harold: What do you do 
first when you are placed in 
an empty hive.^ 

Bee: We stop up all the 
"^ openings but one door. Some 
J: of us go to hunt for propolis. 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 45 

Iva: What is propolis? 

Bee: A kind of glue which will not dissolve in water. Some 
think we get it from the buds of plants, but I shall not tell 
where we find it, and men may keep on guessing about it. We 
cover the walls of our home with propolis, and if there are glass 
windows, we cover them with a curtain of the same. 

Glenn: How do you use the propolis.^ 

Bee: Some of our workers bring it in tiny balls to the hive; 
others seize it, and go to work filling all the cracks just as a 
mason would use mortar. The work is divided among us; 
each bee knows what it has to do, and there is no grumbling. 
In this respect I think we may be said to be patterns of good 
behavior to children. 

Iva: And you have all the little baby bees to care for and 
feed.^ 

Bee: Hundreds of them, and each little one is as tenderly 
watched as though there were but one in the hive. I have 
never yet heard a nurse bee find fault because it is hard to watch 
over and feed so many. 

A BEE WITH SCISSORS 

Harold: I wonder what cut the holes in these rose leaves. 
Ah, here is a little wonder-worker at it now. Please tell us 
your name.^ 

Bee: My name is Mrs. Rose Meg-a-chi'le. Sometimes I 
am called the leaf-cutting bee, because I cut out pieces of 
leaf, which I use instead of wax in making cells. 

Hazel: Do you have scissors, Mrs, Meg.^ 

Bee: Not scissors made of steel, such as you use, but my 
little jaws are so shaped and are so sharp that they serve me 
better. I grasp the leaf and let it pass between my legs so I 
can hold it firmly. Then I turn round and round and cut the 
leaf with my mouth. Before giving the last clip, I balance 



46 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

my wings to fly, and as the cut part falls from the leaf, I bear 
it away. 

Hazel: Where do you build your comb ? 
Bee: It is the honey-bee that makes comb of wax, and lives 
in large colonies. I live by myself, and make my cells in soft 
wood or in the ground. I am very careful in selecting my home, 
and my first work is to make a smooth, round hole several 
inches deep, which leads to a good-sized chamber. In this I 
make a row of cells one on top of the other, beginning at the 
bottom. 

Harold: Do you line the cell with rose leaves t 
Bee: Yes; this round piece is for the bottom. Should you 
visit the South Kensington Museum in London, you could see 
cells such as I make. 

Hazel: How many pieces of leaf does it take for one cell t 
Bee: Twelve or sixteen. This is the shape of the cell, and 

here is a picture of one after 
it is finished. 

Glenn: How can you make 
them so perfect with only your 
jaws and your little feet to 
work with 1 

Bee: The One who made 
me taught me how. The very 
first one I ever made was as 

MRS. ROSE MEGACHILE AND HER NEST PerfcCt aS the laSt. 

Iva: How many cells do you make.^ 

Bee: Eight or ten. I twist and fold the pieces of leaf to- 
gether, and place them so that two pieces do not join in the 
same place. The middle of one piece lies directly over where 
two edges come together, thus making each cell tight and 
strong. One cell fits into the next above it just as a thimble 
would fit into another a little larger. 






Friends and Foes in Field and Forest - 47 

Hazel: Do you put honey into the cells ? 
Bee: Yes, I make a ball of honey and pollen for each 
cell. When one is ready to close up, I cut three pieces of 
leaf to put over the top, and they make the bottom of the 
next cell. 

Harold: Are they all as round as these ? 
Bee: Yes, just as round. 

Glenn: A carpenter would need compasses to mark out 
circles like that, and if I should 
try to draw one it would look 
like this. 

Bee: God gave me wisdom 
in the beginning to do perfect 
work, and my cells are so tight 
THE BEE'S CIRCLE ^j^^^^ though madc of Icavcs, G^^^^'s ^^^^^^ 

even the thinnest drop of honey can not leak out of them. 

lua: Where do you live ? 

Bee: I am found in countries where it is hot or cold, and 
even as far north as Hudson Bay. 

Hazel: I should like to see one of your cells after it is fin- 
ished. 

Bee: We take good care to hide them from curious eyes, 
so they are not easy to find. After our work is done, we fill 
the top of the hole with earth or with the wood dug out in 
making it, and this is so cleverly done that no trace is left. 

Glenn: Are there other bees that make cells of leaves as 
you do, Mrs. Meg.^ 

Bee: Yes; there is my cousin called the upholsterer-bee. 
She likes bright colors, and so uses red poppies to line her cells. 
She wears a black velvet dress trimmed with white down, and 
makes a burrow in sandy soil. She is very particular to smooth 
out every wrinkle in the poppy leaves, and folds them over to 
make the top of each cell. In India some of my relatives make 



48 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



clay tubes in the hollow branches of trees, in which their eggs 
are laid. 

Glenn: I have heard there are bees that are called car- 
penters. Are you acquainted with them.^ 

Bee: "Yes; one family is called Xy-loc'o-pa, which means 
wood-cutter. They live in very warm countries. They build 

their homes in a hole if they can find 
one in wood. They are lovely crea- 
tures, larger than bumblebees; they 
wear black velvet dresses, and their 
wings are dark blue. After selecting 
some post or branch of a tree, the bee 
begins to bore a tunnel with her 
strong jaws. She first digs in a slant- 
ing direction for about an inch, and 
then suddenly turns and goes straight 
down twelve or fifteen inches, making 
a tunnel half an inch wide. 

Iva: It must take a long time. 
Bee: Yes, several weeks, or 
nearly as long as it would take a man to build a house. Some- 
times she makes three or four tunnels side by side. In the 
bottom of each she places pollen and honey, lays an egg, and 
then makes a roof of sawdust mixed with her saliva about an 
inch up the tube, and this forms the bottom of another cell, 
and so on to the top of the tunnel. 

Hazel: Where does she get sawdust.^ 

Bee: While she is boring her tunnel, she takes the fine sha- 
vings and puts them in a neat pile where the wind can not blow 
them away, so she has them at hand when needed for use. She 
makes a ring which soon hardens, then another, and still an- 
other, and finally fills it to the center. It appears some like 
the rings in an onion when a slice is cut through the middle. 




WOOD-CUTTING BEE 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 49 

Glenn: The bee in the bottom cell must come to life first. 
How does it get out ? 

Bee: That is all provided for by this careful carpenter. She 
makes a back door into her house, as well as one in front. This 
she fills with soft sawdust paste, which will not hurt her baby's 
mouth when it is ready to leave its cell. Another curious 
thing is that the larvae^ when ready to turn to pupae, turn their 
heads downward, so it is easy for them to get out. 

Hazel: I have read of a carpenter-bee about as big as a 
grain of rice. 

Bee: You mean another cousin of mine, I think — Ce-rat'i-na 
du'pla. She is noted for her industrious habits. She builds 
her cells in a broken twig of elder or sumac, and begins work 
by removing the pith in the center. This is as much of a task 
for little Ceratina as it would be for a man to dig a well two hun- 
dred feet deep, with his hands, for she has nothing but her 
mouth to work with. She makes a tunnel eight or ten inches 
long, and the walls are perfectly smooth. 

Glenn: What does she do when the tunnel is finished 1 

Bee: She goes to hunt for pollen and honey, which she 
places at the bottom of the tunnel; then she lays a very tiny 
^gg on the food she has provided. She makes a partition above 
this, provides more food, makes another partition, and so on 
until the last one comes within an inch of the top. 

Hazel: That is like an apartment-house, each baby bee 
having a whole flat to itself. 

Bee: After Ceratina's work is done, she uses the empty 
room at the top as her sitting-room, where she patiently watches 
and waits. One of her near relatives spins a film over the top 
of the cell she makes, something like the web a spider spins, and 
then brings five or six tiny pebbles, which she glues in the middle 
just over the hole. I suppose this is meant to be a notice to 
other bees, "Please do not come here." 
4 



so 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Glenn: Does the bee hatched from the first tgg go out by 
a back door before the rest are ready? 

Bee: No; this little carpenter makes no back door, so the 
oldest bee must wait till all its brothers and sisters have left 
their rooms. It is said that the young bees stand close to- 
gether with heads toward the door, and when the little mother 
finds they are all ready, she leads the way to the outside world. 

Hazel: Do they ever go back home again t 

Bee: Yes, they return and have a thorough house-cleaning. 
They take out the old partitions, help their mother, and 
stay with her till they go to make homes of their own. 

Harold: Do they live there all winter.^ 

Bee: I am told that they do. When it gets cold, they go 
into the clean tunnel head downward, tuck themselves in, and 
sleep all winter until the warm sunshine wakens them. The 
last one to go in, the one that takes the coldest place, is the 
little mother. This is known by her wings being worn with 
making so many trips for pollen and honey, that her babies 
may have plenty of food. At last she lies down to rest, but 
takes the coldest place, still guarding 
her children; and there, it may be, her 
little life goes out before the spring- 
time comes. 

Harold: I wonder if there are 
mason-bees as well as carpenters. 

Bee: Certainly. The mason-bees 
mix a kind of mortar made of clay and 
saliva, and build their homes against 
walls or timber, and when dry they are 
very hard. Oblong cells may be found 
inside. The mother bee likes to make 
her home pretty and neat, and so she 
covers the mud walls with nice, soft 




THE MASON- BEE AND 
HER HOME 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 51 

leaves. In each cell she deposits an tgg and a cake of pollen 
and honey, and when all are finished she closes up the door 
with soft mortar that will not hurt the tender jaws of the baby 
masons. 

Iva: Do they build a new house each year.^ 
Bee: Sometimes they repair the houses made the year be- 
fore, and sometimes, I am sorry to say, they go Into a house 
that a sister mason Is building, and drive her away. 

Hazel: Can you tell us about any other kinds of bees : 
Bee: My cousin An-dre'na is sometimes called the miner- 
bee, because she digs Into walls or hard earth such as can not be 
cut with a sharp knife. She bores a hole straight down several 
Inches, makes a little round room, lays one tgg, and leaves 
pollen and honey for the baby to eat when It Is hatched. After 
her work is done, she comes out and shuts the door by filling It 
with earth taken out when digging. 

Hazel: Are the wasps related to you } 

Bee: They belong to the Hy-men-op'te-ra family, like my- 
self, but I am not acquainted with them. Good-by. 

The First Paper-Makers 

Wasp: May I tell you a story? 

Iva: Please do, Mrs. Wasp. 

Wasp: While a man sat reading his newspaper, a wasp 
came buzzing about his head, and he struck 
it with the paper so that It lay on the win- 
dow seeming to be dead. In a few minutes 
another wasp came flying about, and 
seeing its relative lying there, came close 
and examined it. Soon it began to rub 

COMMON WASP , - - - 1 1 • • 11 

the senseless one, and kept on rubbmg it all 
over. After a time the wounded wasp moved, and then the 
other dragged it gently along to the edge of the open window. 




52 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



After resting a little, it picked up its wounded companion and 
flew away with it. 

Harold: That was kind, I am sure. 

Wasp: My real name is Ves'pa. Don't you think that is a 



girl. You seem to be 



pretty name.^ 

Hazel: It is nice enough for a 
quite good-looking, too. 

Wasp: I suppose some young women would admire my 
figure because my waist is so small. I have heard that some 
of them wear their clothes very tight so that they may look 
like me. 

Hazel: How many wings have you .^ 

Wasp: Four. That is why I belong to the Hy-men-op'te-ra 
family. My front wrings have row^s of little curved hairs next 
to the back wings, and they turn backward at the edge, so the 
hairs catch in the groove and hold both wings close together. 

Harold: Perhaps that is why you make such a loud buzz- 
ing when flying, for four wings would surely make more noise 
than two. What kind of house do you make? 
Wasp: We build one of paper. 
Hazel: Where do you get the paper? 

Wasp: We make it. Long before men knew that paper 
could be made at all, every wasp had a paper-mill of 

his own. My mouth is 
my mill. Some wasps in 
tropical America are so 
skilled in paper-making 
that they build their 
homes of white, gray, and 
buff cardboard. Reau- 
mur, a man who spent 
much time in studying in- 
NEST OF PAPER-MAKING WASP sccts, oncc took somc of 




I 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 53 

this cardboard to a man to examine. After giving it the 
closest examination, he declared it was made by some man, 
and mentioned the name of one who he thought was the 
maker. 

Harold: What do you use in making paper? 

Wasp: Wood; we gnaw off a piece, chew it into pulp, and 
then work it with our jaws and feet till it is ready to use. It 
V. as from us that men first learned to make paper from wood. 
A great man, James G. Blaine, was talking with Dr. Hill, of 
Maine. He said there were not enough rags and cotton in the 
world to make the paper needed for all the papers and books, 
and unless paper could be made some other way, they would 
have to stop printing. Paper was then thirty cents a pound. 
Dr. Hill kept thinking where all the paper was to come from, 
and one day while he was watching some wasps build their 
nest, he got an idea. He captured the nest, took it to a paper- 
mill, and asked the manager why he could not make paper 
like that. The two men examined it closely. They knew it 
was made of wood, and that wasps chewed the wood. This 
was the starting-point of making paper by machinery from 
wood. It was not long till paper was reduced in price from 
thirty cents a pound to one and one-half cents. 

Iva: Where do you build your houses ? 

Wasp: Sometimes in the ground, and sometimes we hang 
them up in a tree or some sheltered place. The hanging nests 
are shaped quite like a balloon. When I woke from my long 
sleep last spring, I looked everywhere for a suitable place to 
build my house and rear my children. In England wasps 
usually build their nests in the ground; but in my search I 
came to an empty shed, and decided that mine should be hung 
from a beam near the roof. I first flew to a wooden post near 
by, and gnawed off some of its fibers till I had quite a bundle. 
After chewing them fine and working them into a paste, I flew 



54 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

to the shed and fastened this to the ceiHng. Back and forth I 
Vv^ent, again and again, till I had made a small pillar about an 
inch long. You see I lay the foundation of my house at the top 
instead of the bottom. Then I made three cells opening down- 
ward, and deposited an ^g^ in each. 

Harold: I should think they would fall out. 

Wasp: They could not, for I fastened them to the side, and 
after that I shut them in. To protect them I made a paper 
umbrella overhead. Then I made more cells. It was not 
long till the first eggs hatched, and the larvae must be fed. 
They grew very fast, and finally wrapped themselves up in 
soft silk blankets, which they spun themselves. Soon they 
came out full-grown wasps. Still the work went merrily on, 
for now I had others to help me. My older children cared for 
their younger brothers and sisters, and built new bedrooms, or 
cells, for our home. Terrace after terrace was added, and the 
v/alls brought down over them lower and lower. 

Iva: Where do you make the door.^^ 

Wasp: At the bottom, and just large enough to let one 
wasp in at a time. 

Harold: How many are there in a nest.^ 

Wasp: From seven thousand to ten thousand. 

Iva: What do you eat? 

Wasp: We like sweet fruits and honey best, but we also eat 
insects. 

Glenn: Do you live in your nest during winter.^ 

Wasp: No, only in summer. When cold weather comes, 
we huddle together in the nest, and destroy the helpless larvae. 
Most wasps die in autumn, but a few crawl into cracks and 
crevices, where they live through the winter, and it is they who 
start new colonies the next spring. 

Hazel: Are hornets the same as wasps? 

Wasp: No, they are larger and stronger, and their sting is 



Friends and Fo 



es in 



Field and Forest 



55 



very severe. They do 
everything on a bigger 
scale than we do. They 
build their nests in the 
trunks of old trees, and 
work at night as well as 
in the daytime. 

Harold: Are there 
many kinds of wasps .^ 
Wasp: Yes, a large 
number. Some live by 
themselves instead of in 
colonies. Some make 
big nests four or five 
feet long and one or two 
feet wide. In the South Kensington Museum, London, may 
be seen many kinds which show great skill on the part of the 
builders. There one can see a tiny nest made in the hole of a 
spool of thread, and another in the hole of a tassel. One little 
wasp makes its cells under long leaves, which serve as a roof. 
Iva: Do you make honey? 
Wasp: Some wasps do, but I am not that kind. 




HORNET AND ITS NEST 



Bonny Bombus 



Bomhus: My name is Bom'bus, but I am sometimes called 
humblebee and bumblebee. 

Hazel: I think your dress of velvet and gold very pretty, 
Mrs. Bombus, but your voice is so coarse and loud I am afraid 
of you. Do you have a sting like the honey-bee 1 

Bombus: I can show you very soon if you like. My home 
is out in the meadow, but I shall not tell you just where. We 
sometimes make it in the nest of a mouse, for that saves dig- 



56 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



ging a hole in the ground. Our home has a wonder- 
ful roof of moss. I worked very hard to make that roof, as 
all the moss had to be carded by drawing it through my jaws 
and fore legs. It makes my dwelling look so much like the 
ground surrounding it that it protects me from thieves, who 
would break it down and steal my honey. I usually line it 
vv^th wax to keep out the rain. I have a hall, or passageway, 
about a foot long and half an inch wide, by which I enter. 

Iva: Do you have comb inside like the honey-bee? 

Bomhus: No; we have wax cells, but they are the cradles 
of my children. We do not believe in working for men who 
steal honey; so we 
simply get what is 
needed for our use day 
by day, though we 
keep a little on hand 
sometimes. 

Harold: Do you 
have a large family.^ 

Bombus: Not large 
like that of Cousin 
Honey-bee. She has 
from twenty thousand 
to forty thousand in 
her family, while we have from twenty to two hundred. 

Hazel: Do you have a queen ? 

Bomhus: No; we all live together — fathers, mothers, and 
children. 

Iva: Your voice is so gruff, Mrs. Bombus, you must be a 
great scold. 

Bomhus: That noise which you call my voice is made by 
my wings, and as I am large and clumsy, people often think I 
am ugly; but I am not so apt to sting as the honey-bee. 




BONNY BOMBUS S HOME AND HONEY JARS 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 57 

Glenn: Do you live in your snug, warm home all winter? 

Bomhus: When cold weather comes, many in our family 
die; those that remain leave home and crawl into rotten wood, 
under a tuft of moss, or anywhere they can keep warm, and 
there sleep all winter. Last spring the warm sunshine woke 
me, and I began at once to build my house. I made some cells, 
and laid six or seven eggs in each, so there were several babies 
in each cradle. Thus my children learn to live and eat to- 
gether. As they grew larger, the cells burst open, and I was 
kept busy repairing them and feeding the children. Like all 
larvae they turned to pupae, and when they were full grown, 
I helped them off with their covering. My children were 
kind to me, and we worked hard to make our home larger. 
They helped build other cells and brought food for the 
younger children. But they will eat the eggs after they are 
placed in the cells, so I am obliged to guard them very care- 
fully. Did you ever hear of bees sitting on eggs to hasten 
their hatching.^ 

Hazel: Do bumblebees do that? 

Bombus: By breathing quickly we make our bodies warm, 
and then we sit on our eggs, just as a fowl does. One sits on 
them awhile, then another, and by this means they hatch more 
rapidly. 

Harold: Is there more than one kind of bumblebee? 

Bombus: There are about twenty different families. There 
is an insect that looks much as we do, which enters our homes, 
lays its eggs in our cells, and asks us to feed and bring up its 
children. We do the work patiently enough, but think them 
lazy and dishonest. 

Hazel: Do you have any other name than Bombus? 

Bombus: People call me Hummel, Bumble, Dumble, and 
Dumbledore, and some even call me Foggie. I do not know 
why they gave me so many names. 



S8 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Little, but "Exceeding Wise 



>> 



Iva: See this ant-hill, Glenn. 

Glenn: Where are all the ants ? 

Harold: We will knock at the front door, and see if any- 
body is at home. Here they come in a hurry. When a caller 
knocks at Mrs. Ant's 
door, half the family go 
with her to see who is 
there. 

Glenn: Will you tell 
us something about the 
ant family, Mrs. Ant.^ 

Ant: We belong to 
the same family as the 
bees — Hy-men-op'te-ra. 

Hazel: But bees have 




wmgs. 

Ant: 



We have wings, too. I 



"see this ant-hill!" 

unhooked them and took 



them off when I went to work so they wouldn't be in my way. 
Huber, the naturalist, once saw an ant in a box extend her 
wings, bring them before her head, cross them in all directions, 
throw them from side to side, and then all four wings fell off 
at the same time. 

Iva: Can you put them on again? 

Ant: No; when we decided to set up housekeeping by our- 
selves, we spread our wings and 
flew and flew. That was our 
wedding journey, and we were all 
kings and queens. There were so 
many of us that people complained 
because we flew into their faces. 
Many died, but some came to the 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



59 



ground safely. That is the only long journey I ever took. 
I found there was plenty to do to build a house, get it in 
order, and care for my children, so I unhooked my wings, and 
began to make a home for myself and my family. Sometimes 
the worker ants unhook our wings for us, and are as kind 
as possible. 

ha: Did any of your brothers and sisters stay with you? 

Ant: A few of them. Queen ants are not jealous of their 



sister queens, 
gether. Like 
duce other 
Harold: 
Ant: We 
As soon as we 
in the dirt to make 
dig with my forefeet 
a rabbit. When the hole 
cover my body, I use my 
the earth into little balls. You 
lying all about the top of my nest 
them outside. But if the soil 



like the bees. We live peaceably to- 
the queen bees, we lay eggs which pro- 
ants. 

Do you work? 

think it is queenly to work. 

take off our wings, we dig 

our house. At first I 

just as a dog digs for 

is big enough to 





mouth to form 
see them 
here. I carry 
sandy, it is 
at a time. 



The Bible says. 



carried out of the hole one grain 

Hazel: What a lot of work! 

Ant: We are not afraid of hard work. 
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 
which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat 
in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." 

Hazel: Have you no ruler? 

Ant: We have kings and queens, yet only in the sense that 
they are the fathers and mothers. Every ant is a worker, and 
we think that is the way it ought to be in every home, 
whether of ants or people. 

Harold: Have you many relatives, Mrs. Ant? 



6o Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Ant: Hundreds. There are one hundred twenty-four 
species, and these, divided into families, are more than one can 
get acquainted with in a lifetime. There are big ants and 
little ants; red, black, white, brown, and yellow ants; there are 
mining-ants, farmer-ants, hunting-ants, soldier-ants, building- 
ants, and ants with dairy-farms. 

Glenn: You have a big head for such a small body. 

Ant: It takes a large head to hold all the wisdom the Crea- 
tor gave me. My body Is slender; my legs are long, so I can 
run swiftly; my eyes are not very large, but those of my broth- 
ers are larger; I have two strong jaws, with tiny, sharp teeth. 
These are useful as scissors, pinchers, shovel, fork, and sword. 

Hazel: Your antennas, or horns, seem to be crooked. 

Ant: They bend like an elbow, and are useful in examining 
things, and to talk with. One of my 
friends found a fat fly she wanted to 
carry home for dinner. She tugged 
and pulled and worked for twenty 
minutes, but could not carry it any 
more than a little boy could carry a 
big man weighing two hundred pounds, 
so she left the fly, went home, and soon came back with twelve 
ants to help her. 

Harold: A woman once watched some ants moving their 
babies into a new home. She hid three of the little white 
bundles behind a stone. Soon three or four ants rushed out of 
the nest and ran wildly about in circles as though they were 
hunting for something. At last one found the babies, took 
one and ran away. This ant told the news, and two ants went 
to the stone, and carried the other babies back to the nest. 

Glenn: Can ants count and talk? 

Ant: Surely we can. We just touch one another with our 
horns, and we have no difliculty in understanding what is 




ANTS TALKING 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 6 1 

meant. And some ants have stings; and some have an acid 
which is poured into wounds made by their jaws which causes 
them to sting and burn. 

Harold: I read of a man who, to keep the ants out of his 
sugar basin, placed it in a pan of water, but the ants liked the 
sugar too well to give up trying to get it, so they climbed the 
wall to the ceiling over the sugar, and dropped into it. 

Ant: Some of them must have fallen into the water. "" 
Harold: They did, for the ceiling was high; but ants on the 
edge of the pan tried to fish their companions out by stretching 
out their bodies as far as possible; they were afraid to plunge 
into so large a lake after them. Then a few ran to the ant-hill, 
and brought eight soldier-ants, which threw themselves into the 
water, swam around, seized the drowning ants, and brought 
them to shore. Though they were half dead, their friends 
rolled them in the dust, brushed them, rubbed them, and 
stretched themselves on them to warm them. Then they 
rolled and rubbed them again. 
. Hazel: Did they live? 
Harold: Of the eleven that fell into the water, four were 
restored. The fifth, when able to move its legs and horns a 
little, was carried home. Six died, and 
were taken to the ant-hill. 

Hazel: A woman in Sydney, Australia, 
killed a number of soldier-ants, and in half 
an hour went back where she had left their 
dead bodies. A large number of living ants 

BEING CARRIED HOME ° ^ 

were about the dead ones. Four or five 
went to a little mound in which was an ants' nest, and in about 
five minutes they came out, followed by others. All fell into 
rank, going slowly two by two to the dead ants. Two took 
up one dead body, then two another, and so on. There were 
two ants bearing a body, then two without one, then two others 




62 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




^rrfs Cemetery 



with a dead ant, and so on until 

about forty pairs were in line. The 

procession moved slowly, followed by 

about two hundred ants. When the 

ants bearing a body would stop and 

lay down their burden, it was taken 

up by the two behind them. Thus 

they journeyed until they arrived at a sandy spot near the sea. 

Here they dug holes with their jaws, and into each hole a dead 

ant was laid. Then the graves were filled up. But six or 

seven of the ants had tried to run off without digging. These 

were brought back, and at once killed. A single grave was 

dug, and all dropped into it. 

Ant: An insect called the velvet ant, though she is not 
really an ant, is related to us. She wears a beautiful red dress, 
but one forgets how pretty she looks when he sees what a 
temper she has; she seems to be angry all the time, and tries to 
sting every living thing that crosses her path. Her mate has 
wings, and flies whenever there is a fresh outburst of wrath. 
She will even try to fight a man if he is within reach, and she has 

a powerful sting. She 
keeps up her buzz, 
buz-z-z whether at home 
or abroad, and her loud 
voice can be heard above 
all the cheeping and 
chirping of more peace- 
able insects twenty feet 
from her. 

Hazel: I should not 
care to be like her. 

Ant: Now let me tell 

THE STUDENT AND HIS EXPERIMENT y^U aboUt my SUt friCnd 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 63 

that was carried to a great university in Pennsylvania, by a 
young man who wished to learn whether ants can remember. 
He made a little railway with two tracks separated by a high 
partition. He painted one track red and the other blue, and at 
the end placed a piece of rich cake. Then he placed my friend 
at the beginning of the railway. She ran to get a piece of the 
cake, taking the red track, and the young man put a blazing 
lamp under the roadway and heated it so hot that she burned 
her feet; but still she kept on till she got the cake. Several 
hours later he thought he would see whether the ant remem- 
bered her uncomfortable journey, and so placed her where he 
did before, with the cake in plain sight. She waited a moment, 
then took the blue path. Then he blocked up the blue path, 
and the ant went without the cake rather than travel over 
the red path to get it. 

Hazel: Peter Huber divided an ants' nest, putting part 
under a glass bell where he could watch the ants. The others 
made a nest at the foot of a chestnut-tree. They were sep- 
arated four months, and then those under the glass were taken 
to the rest of the family. They were very joyful when they 
met. They touched one another with their antennae, and 
all went together into the nest under the chestnut-tree. 

Ant: We have been known to recognize one another after 
being separated two years, and if eggs are taken from one ant- 
hill and reared in another, the ants will be recognized when they 
return to their own family. We never have family quar- 
rels. If we find anything good to eat we do not hide away and 
eat it alone, but invite our brothers and sisters to have a share. 
We help one another all we can. If one ant gets very tired, 
another carries it on its back. If one has a heavy load, others 
are ready to help carry it. Sometimes we work so hard that we 
forget to eat, and then other ants bring us food. If we get hurt, 
we are carried home and cared for. A man once saw an ant 



64 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

which had one of its horns torn off, and another ant came and 
poured something on the wound; so you see we have doctors 
and nurses. 

Hazel: How long do you live ? 

Ant: The worker ants live many years, which shows that 
work is good for those who would live a long time. 

Iva: Do you work at night ? 

Ant: In hot countries we do, and rest during the day. We 
stop work and take a nap when we get tired; we lie on our sides, 
rest on our hind legs, or lie down together in a heap. When we 
waken, we stretch and yawn. When crowded, we are not rude, 
but keep good-natured. 

Hazel: Do all ants do the same kind of work? 

Ant: No, some act as nurses; some gather our food; others 
build our homes; some herd the cows; others tend the crops and 
harvest them; some are soldiers, and others sentinels. 

Iva: What do the sentinels do.^ 

Ant: It is their duty to keep enemies out of the ant home. 
They watch at some distance from the ant-hill, and give an 
alarm if a foe appears. They first run home and stand at the 
door of the passageways, and tap every one they meet with 
their antennae. It does not take long for the alarm to spread 
throughout the whole household, and the ants rush out by 
hundreds to fight for life and liberty. 

Harold: Do the sentinels close the doors at night? 

Ant: Yes; they work from both the outside and the inside. 
Sometimes small stones are used for closing the passages. One 
family of ants has sentinels that use their heads as gates. It 
would not be easy for anything to get inside without wa- 
king the guard, where this is the case. Some of the ants 
do sentinel duty while they are watching the nest from 
some point near by, and they are ready to fight if any 
enemy appears. 




Friends and Foes in Field arid Forest 

LIVING BRIDGE 

Harold: I have 
heard that some 
ants use their 
bodies to make 
bridges. 

Ant: The dri- 
ver-ants in Africa 
^, make ladders and 'i'^jl\' 



bridges by clinging to t, 
one another. One of ^'^ 
the largest ants takes < 
hold of the branch of a tree ' ^^t 
Lth its fore legs, and lets its body ^^t 
down. Another ant climbs down 
over the first, clings to its hind legs, and lets 
its body hang the same as the first. When the 
bridge has been made long enough by a large num- 
ber of ants hanging together, they wait until the 
wind carries the end of the ladder to some branch 
or tree they wish to reach. When this is done, 
they cling to it, and thus form a suspension-bridge, 
and all the ants that wish to do so cross over. 
Glenn: How do the ants that make the bridge 
get over? 

Ant: The one that was first in making the 
bridge lets go, and the line swings to the other side. 

The ant at the end climbs over the bodies 
I of the rest that make up the bridge, then » v^ 
!'% the next does the same, and so on until ^" ^^*- 




^",1 






H 

m 



i 



66 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



the whole line have joined their companions that passed over 
before them. 

Hazel: I have heard that some ants use their bodies as 
storehouses for food. 

Ant: They live in Mexico, and have also been found in 
Colorado and Australia. Early in life the stomach of some of 
these ants grows until this part of its body is as large as a 
currant or a small grape. Their bodies 
are full of sweet sirup, and they retire 
into little rooms in their home and 
hang by their feet from the ceiling. 
They are really little honey-pots, and 
when the workers are hungry they go 
to one of these live storerooms, and are 
fed just as a bird feeds her young. 
The Mexicans and Indians sometimes 
collect these ants and eat their honey. 
It is also used for medicine. 

Harold: What do ants eat? 

Ant: All sorts of things — meat, fresh or dried, grains, 
fruit, and especially sweet things, such as sugar, sirup, and 
honey. We do not chew our food, but lick it with our rough 
tongues. Some ants sit up like squirrels when eating. If the 
food is hard, we moisten it. The teeth of old working ants are 
sometimes worn off. 

Iva: I shouldn't think you would like to work all the time. 

Ant: We work awhile anTl then we rest, and we have our 
playtimes, too, when we jump and wrestle, play games, carry 
one another in our mouths, and have a good time. But we 
never mix work and play. 

Hazel: Please tell us about the parasol-ants. 

Ant: They are large, and are called parasol-ants because 
when carrying to their nests pieces they cut from leaves, they 




dAIT£RlOR OF ANTi^eST 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



67 




hold them over their 
heads like a parasol. 
Each piece of leaf is 
about as big as a dime, 
and it is carried by a 
little stem. 



PARASOL- ANTS 



Glenn: 
they do 
leaves ? 



What do 
with the 



Ant: They tear them into small pieces, store them in their 
nests until decayed, and use as food a fungus which grows on: 
the rotten leaves. You see they are mushroom growers and 
eaters. When gathering the leaves, they march along one 
after another, and look like a procession of living leaves. The 
leaf-cutting, or parasol-ants, are found in Central America, 
and there do great harm to orange, lemon, and mango leaves. 
All ants are careful to keep themselves and their homes clean. 
Ants clean themselves in much the way that a cat does. They 
draw the brushes on their legs through their mouths and rub 
themselves all over. That is their way of taking a bath. 
Sometimes one ant assists another in making his toilet by 
brushing him. 

Iva: Mrs. Susan Lee saw, near the Guadalupe River, a 
beautiful vine with leaves smaller than those of the smilax, of 
a pale, tender green. Its root was about £ve feet from a cotton- 
wood-tree, and four or five inches wide, becoming narrower as 
it approached the tree. No stems nor tendrils could be seen, 
so thick was the growth. The vine branched just above the 
ground and climbed the trunk and branches, growing more 
and more slender, until, far up, it was only a threadlike line of 
green. Soon it was prevaded by a tremulous motion, and the 
leaves were not stationary. She picked up a twig, and found 
a brown ant under it, about as long as her little finger nail. 



6^ 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Each leaf was held in the mandibles of an ant so as to conceal 
its body, and the ants were coming down the tree. It was a 
nest of umbrella-ants. Such ants are found in the tropics, 
where they carry 
bits of leaves over 
their heads as if to 
protect themselves 
from the sun; but 
here on the banks of 
a Texas river, was a 
colony of them, sha- 
ding thems elves 
where there was no 
sun, and completely 
hidden by their cov- 
ering of green. The 
spot where the vine 
seemed to have its 
root was the open- 
ing of the ant-hill. 
By some instinct 
the ants learned 
that the topmost 
branches of the 
Cottonwood had put 
out their first small 
leaves. So they 




THE MOVING VINE OF UMBRELLA-ANTS 



climbed the great 
distance, and cut off and brought down the leaves to feed their 
young. The ants coming from the nest went to the farther 
side of the tree, and climbed up where they would not inter- 
fere with the leaf-bearing thousands coming down 

Hazel: Some people found a bottle with a few drops of 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 69 

whisky close by an ant-hill. They emptied the whisky into 
and around the ant-hill. The ants came running out, and 
even tumbling over one another in order to get away from the 
stuff. Then they went to work. Every stone, stick, weed, or 
leaf that had the smell of whisky was carried away. A large 
hole was left where they had been at work. While many ants got 
rid of the whisky, some attended to a grasshopper that was 
given them. They sawed and pulled it in pieces, and stored it 
in their underground storehouse. 

The Farmer-Ants 

Glenn: I have often wondered, Mrs. Ant, how small crea- 
tures can carry such heavy loads. 

Ant: Our jaws are strong, and we are not easily discouraged. 

We may stumble and tumble over and over again, and roll 

down-hill with our load, but still we try 

again, until we succeed. Do you see four 

or five ants carrying that big beetle.^ 

They have brought him an inch nearer 

while we have been looking at them. 

A HEAVY LOAD /^^; Qnc of thcm is running away. 

Ant: She is lazy. Two of the ants are bringing her back, 

and are cutting off her head; they did not punish her until they 

had tried twice to make her do her duty. 

Glenn: I thought all ants were great workers. 
Ant: A few do not like to work, but nearly all are industri- 
ous. In Texas, Florida, and a few other warm countries, ants 
have been found that clear the ground of weeds, and nothing 
is allowed to grow on it except a kind of grass which bears a 
seed called ant-rice. 

Hazel: How can ants cut down weeds ? 

Ant: They cut down those as thick as your thumb and 




70 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 





two feet high, and drag them away. That Is 

like a man cutting down trees one thousand feet 

high and one hundred feet through, to make a 

farm. With their strong jaws they pull and twist and cut 

and push. Sometimes one ant climbs to the top of a weed 

to bend it over, while another gnaws away near the ground 

till it tumbles down. 

Iva: Do they keep their gardens clean ? 
Ant: Always. Their farms are round, and sometimes as 
large as a big room. Near the center there are one or two 
openings which lead to the rooms below. 
These may be several feet underground. 
They are used as granaries to store their grain, 
and also as living-rooms for the family. 

Hazel: There is a Bible verse, written by 
the wise man, that says, ''The ants are a people not strong, 
yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30: 25. 

Ant: That is what these little farmers do. 
Seeds, when ripe, fall to the ground; the ants tear 
off the husks, and then store the seeds in the rooms 
below. 

Harold: I should think they would sprout and 
grow down under the ground. 

Ant: The ants carry them out to dry after a 
shower. Sometimes they cut the kernels so they 
can not grow. 

Glenn: That must make a lot of 
work. I think they must be the ants 
that provide meat in the summer and 
gather food in the harvest. 

Ant: They are not afraid of work. 
After a crop is gathered, they clear 
the land of all the old stalks, so it is 





Pnellinq of 



FARMER-ANTS 
AT WORK 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 71 

ready for the next crop. They also build roads sixty feet 
long and two or three inches wide, so they can carry grain that 
grows outside the home farm. 

THE DAIRY-ANTS 

Ant: I am going now to milk my cows. 

Hazel: Do ants have dairies as well as farms ? 

Ant: Just turn up that leaf and you will see a whole herd 
of cows. 

Iva: Those are plant-lice, or aphids. 

Ant: They furnish us rich, sweet milk. This sugary liquid 

is the food of the baby 
plant-lice until they are 
able to suck the juice of 
plants. I pat one of these 
ANT MILKING ITS cow j-^^j^ crcaturcs on both 

sides, so, with my feelers, and it gives out two little drops 
of sweet drink for me, and I lap it up. This picture shows 
how it is done, only the picture represents us as much 
larger than we really are. We take care of our cows and pro- 
tect them from harm. Sometimes we build little stables of 
earth to keep them in, and at other times we let them live 
in our own home. Ants have been known to build covered 
roadways from their cattle's grazing-ground to their own 
nest, and sometimes they drive their cows to pasture, where 
they feed on the grasses, leaves, and roots nearest the ant-hill. 
Harold: Sir John Lubbock found that ants rear these in- 
sects as carefully as they do their own babies. As winter draws 
on they gather the eggs, carry them to their nest, and feed and 
tenderly care for the young when they are hatched, until spring. 
They then carry them back to their own food plant. The red 
and yellow ants are very fond of the sweet fluid obtained from 
the aphids. 



72 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




Iva: You said there are soldier-ants. 
Why do ants want to fight? 

Ant: Sometimes they go to war 
about their plant-lice, for an ant-hill is 
rich according to the number of aphid 
cows it owns. They are the ants' treas- 
ure, and if those inhabiting one hill take 
the cows belonging to another, they may 
be rescued by their rightful owners. 
There is a large blood-red ant that makes 
war on the ashy-black ants, or the mi- 
ning-ants, to make them their slaves. 
They are sometimes called soldier-ants. 
They have big heads, and like to eat and 
sleep. The russet ants attack the ashy- 
black ants and make them serve as 
slaves, for the former will not work. 
Harold: How do they fight t 
Ant: They rear on their hind legs, and bite with their strong 
jaws. They have a bulldog grip, and when once they seize 
their victim, they never let go. Sometimes an ant may be seen 
carrying on her leg the head of a soldier-ant 
which it has bitten off in some hard-fought 
battle. 

Hazel: Peter Huber once watched a battle. 
The army that went out to fight formed a 
column about three or four inches wide and 
ten feet long. The ants went in regular order, 
and the soldier-ants kept close together. 
They crossed a road in their march, and went 
into a meadow where there was a nest of ashy- 
black ants. The sentinels saw the army 
BLOOD-RED ANTS comlug, gavc thc alarm, and they tried to de- 



ASHY-BLACK ANTS MALE. 

WORKER, AND FEMALE 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



73 



fend their home. The red ants rushed forward, attacked the 
black ants with great fury, and the battle was soon over. 
Then they entered the nest, and in a few minutes each soldier- 
ant came out carrying the pupa or larva of a black ant In its 
mouth. Soon the soldiers formed a straggling line and re- 
turned to their own home. 

SOME LAZY ANTS 

Harold: What do the soldier-ants do with the larvse of 
black ants '^, 

Hazel: They don't like to work themselves, and so make 
slaves of them as they grow up, and they do all the work. It 
is said the soldier-ants treat their servants kindly. 

Glenn: It seems strange that ants should be so lazy that 
they want slaves to wait upon them. 

Ant: They would rather fight than work. If they have 
slaves enough, they will not make their nests, clean themselves, 
nor feed their babies, and they even have 
slaves to give them their food. Peter Ru- 
ber placed thirty of these lazy ants in a box 
where there was plenty of food. All of 
them nearly starved to death, and some 
died. Then a single slave-ant was put in 
the box. She fed the fainting ants, took 
care of the younger ones, and made a nest 
for all. 

Harold: Do ants have trades like the 
bees and wasps? 

Ant: Yes, there is the mason-ant, which 

makes her nest of little mud balls laid up 

like bricks. The carpenter-ant cuts into 

logs and trees to make its home. Here is a 

MiNiNG-ANTs plcturc of d. family of mining-ants. One 




74 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



ant makes a woolly nest, and another lines hers with leaves. 

Hazel: Are ants of use to men ? 

Ant: Like the bees they carry pollen to plants and flowers, 
and that makes the seeds grow. In parts of South America 
and Africa there are so many ants that people can not live in 
the same place with them. The driver-ants in Africa and the 
army-ants in Central America march in columns several miles 
long, and eat everything that comes in their way. When they 
come to a building, the people run for their lives. They eat all 
the food, and bite the people; their bite is almost as painful 
as the sting of a wasp. While most ants bite, some have stings, 
and are not afraid to use them on anything they count as an 
enemy. In some parts of Brazil the ants control the country; 
for men can grow nothing that the ants like, and so they decide 
what crops must be grown. 

Harold: I should like to see how an ant-hill looks inside. 

Ant: The family to which I belong build partly above and 
partly under the ground. We make halls, or passageways, 
down deep in the earth, with rooms arranged in stories. We 
carry all the earth and rubbish to the surface, and use it to 
construct the building above ground. We make passageways, 
chambers, nurseries, and large rooms. We have a room in the 
center sometimes as large as a man's head. This is where we 
gather together to plan our work and to visit. Some of our 
rooms are shaped like an tgg, and the walls are always smooth 
and well finished. We like to build near some green tree or 
shrub, as it makes a shelter for our home, and the leaves fur- 
nish pasture for our cows. 

Harold: What do you work with 1 

Ant: We have nothing but our strong jaws. 

Harold: I should think your walls would fall in. 

Ant: They would if we did not finish them properly. I be- 
long to the mason-ants. We build best where the soil is moist. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 75 

We roll up little balls of earth, stick them on the walls, and then 
pat them smooth with our feet. We work on all parts of our 
dwelling at the same time. Over the underground rooms we 
build a rounded roof, or mound, of little stones, balls of earth, 
bits of sticks, leaves, or anything within reach. 

Hazel: Are there rooms in the upper part of your house .^ 
Ant: Yes; and there are also avenues, which open outside. 
We close the openings when it is rainy and cold, and also at 
night. Some ants dig long galleries underground. At one 
time sulphur smoke blown into an ant-hill was seen to come 
from holes two hundred feet away. The sauba- or coushie-ant 
builds domes two feet high and forty feet long. Our homes are 
also fortresses, built to protect us from our enemies. Some- 
times we have eighty stories, one above another, — forty below 
ground, and as many above. 

Hazel: Auntie saw ants' nests in Australia, built on top of 
the ground six or eight feet high, and nearly as broad. 
Ant: I think she did not visit them, for the ants that live 
there are not afraid to attack a man if he comes 
too near. They have powerful jaws, and in- 
ject an acid which makes the wound very pain- 
ful, like a sting. Did you know there are 
carpenter-ants as well as carpenter-bees? 
Glenn: Do they build nests out of wood.^ 
Ant: Not out of wood, but in it. Here 
is a picture of one made in an oak-tree. The 
carpenter-ants, with no tools but their jaws, 
A HOUSE IN WOOD bore tunnels and rooms in the hardest wood. 

BABIES IN WHITE 

Glenn: I saw some ants that had been disturbed, running 
about carrying what looked like little grains of rice. Were 
those ants' eggs? 






76 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Ant: No, indeed! If you had 
looked carefully you would have 
seen that what you thought were larva and pupa of the 

eggs were nearly as large as the ants red ant 

themselves. An ant's ^gg is so small that you can hardly see 
it without a microscope. Those white bundles were ant 
babies — pupae, I believe you call them. The ant lays her 
eggs in the passages, and the workers pick them up and 
carry them to- rooms especially prepared, where they care for 
them. In two weeks the larvae appear. Each one has a head, 
mouth, and wings. 

Hazel: Not long ago an insect flew into my hair. It 
dropped on my dress, and I saw it twist and wriggle about, and 
then one of its wings dropped off. Still it kept wriggling, and 
soon another wing was gone. I thought it must be an ant, and 
put it under a glass, and it tugged away till it unhooked and 
laid aside all four of its wings. 

Ant: I am glad you saw this, for one may watch some 
time before he sees an ant take off its wings, and get ready 
to work. 

Iva: What do the baby ants eat.^ 

Ant: The nurses feed the larvae just as a mother bird 
feeds its young, and they are kept busy. The first work given 
to young ants is to care for their baby brothers and sisters, and 
they are kind little nurses. In some families the babies of the 
same age are kept together, as a teacher keeps pupils in the 
same class together. 

Harold: Do the nurses have anything to do except to feed 
the little ones ? 

Ant: They carry them into the fresh air every pleasant 
day. As soon as the sun rises, the ants nearest the top of 
the house go to tell those in the lower rooms that it is time to 
wake up. They touch them with their horns, or give them a 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest . yy 

little shake with their jaws. Soon the passages are crowded 
with nurses carrying the babies out into the sunshine. Be- 
sides carrying the babies out, the ant nurses see that they are 
kept very clean, by licking them, brushing them, and stretch- 
ing their skin. After a time the larvae spin a silky white co- 
coon, in which they lie perfectly still until ready to come out. 
It is at this stage that they look like little grains of rice. After 
the nurses take the babies out in the sunshine, and when their 
work is done, they gather together and take a rest. If an 
enemy appears, each nurse seizes a baby in its mouth and runs 
for a place of safety. 

Glenn: Do the nurses help the baby ants out of their pupa- 
cases? 

Ant: Yes, that is part of their duty. They tear off the 
coverings, feed the little ones, teach them to walk, and stay 
close by to help them till they can care for themselves. The 
younger ants are shut up in the ant-hill until the time comes 
for them to fly away and make homes of their own. 

Glenn: When ants move from one place to another, do they 
carry the larvae and pupae with them.^* 

Ant: They would never leave them behind any more than 
your mother would leave the baby when she moves from one 
house to another. They never forget to care for those that are 
sick and old. They, too, are carried to the new home. 

HAPPY IN A THORN 

Iva: Do ants make their homes anywhere else than in the 
ground and in wood 1 

Ant: There is an ant in Brazil which makes a nest as round 
as a marble, with warty projections, hanging from trees like a 
wasps' nest. An ant in Sierra Leone makes a nest that looks 
like a large brown toadstool, only it has four tops instead of one. 

Glenn: I have heard "that some ants make a nest of leaves. 



78 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




ANTS NEST MADE OF LEAVES 



Ant: Captain Cook found these ants making their nests in 
Australia. The leaves they used were as broad as one's hand. 

Thousands of ants united to 
bend the leaves so the tips 
would touch, and thousands 
more applied a kind of glue 
that fastened them together. 
Here is the picture of the 
leafy nest of a tree-ant in 
India. One of my cousins 
makes for herself a quaint 
little house in the bull's horn 
thorn, a kind of acac'ia-tree 
which is covered with sharp 
thorns shaped like horns. 
Here is a picture of one of 
them. When the thorns are growing, the inside is filled with a 
sweet pulp. Near the tip of the thorn the ants make an open- 
ing, and another door is made where 
the thorns unite, and they enter and 
eat the pulp which is found inside. 
When they have emptied this queer 
little pantry of all food there is in it, 
they have a house as snug and safe as 
you please. 

Glenn: What do they have to eat 
then? 

Ant: The tree that gives them 
a house already built, also fur- 
nishes their food. The leaves secrete a liquid 
like honey, of which the ants are very fond. 
It also bears tiny fruit balls, which under a microscope look 
like little golden pears. When one is ready to eat, the ants 




THE BULL S 
HORN THORN 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 79 

bite it off and carry it home. They guard their home tree 
from leaf-cutting ants, caterpillars, cattle, and men. They 
have powerful stings, and use them to protect their tree. In 
very dry seasons when there is no honey-dew on the acacia, 
and the golden fruit does not grow, they die of hunger; but 
when the rains come again, the buds yield their food supply, 
and the ants multiply. 

Glenn: Is the white ant, which does much harm by eating 
wood, paper, and anything that comes in its way, related to 
you? 

Ant: No; it is not an ant at all, its proper name is termite. 
It belongs to the Neu-rop'te-ra family, that is, the nerve- 
winged insects. 

Harold: Harry Stillwell Edwards tells an interesting story 
about the ingenuity of the black ants. 

Iva: Tell it to us, please. 

Harold: Tom was a small Negro on a Georgia plantation. 
The ants numbered probably more than a million. They were 
all of one family, the little black fellows known to everybody 
in the South. They were in all parts of the plantation, but 
their headquarters were in the yard which the rear veranda 
overlooked. All day long, in good weather, they streamed in 
and out of their holes, hurrying here, there, and everywhere, 
always busy. The black ant is as brave as he is tireless, and 
does not hesitate to attack anything the earth produces, man 
or beast, fish or fowl, and that with only the weapons nature 
gave him. That is why Tom became their enemy. 

Tom was always barefooted, and so a target for the ants. 
When he fed the chickens he scratched with first one great 
toe and then the other the opposite ankle, and rubbed his in- 
steps against his calves, while he called, ''Cheek! cheek! 
ch-e-e-k ! cheek ! cheek 1 " When he sat on the ground to polish 
the table-knives, as was his daily custom, his scanty single 



8o Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

garment left him exposed to his enemies. It gave him no re- 
lief to smash all the ants in reach; thousands crowded in to 
take the place of the hundreds. So Tom illustrated the truth 
of the saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention." He 
built fires over the underground cities, poured boiling water 
down the perpendicular streets, and tried the washerwoman's 
clothes-paddle. The ants came back every time. Then Tom 
brought in the hen and her sixteen young chickens, hoping they 
would help him; but the ants whipped them all out, and killed 
one little laggard. 

One day I saw Tom engaged in a new scheme. He found 
a little bottle with a broad mouth, and buried it until the mouth 
was level with the ground. Then he rubbed kerosene over 
the lip, and poured a little inside. Seeing a broad grin on his 
black face, I went out to investigate. The ants swarmed about 
the bottle's mouth, and almost every ant that rushed out on 
the lip of the bottle fell inside. In less than half a day the 
bottle was so crammed with ants that the oil was nearly all 
absorbed. When Tom emptied it, I was puzzled to see as 
much sand as ant corpses, so when he replaced it and oiled the 
entrance, I brought a large magnifying-glass to watch them. 

Each ant that rushed out upon the lip of the bottle carried 
with him a grain of sand. They had discovered that the hole 
was dangerous, and were filling it up. Their momentum, with 
the weight of the sand grains, sent them into the vial as fast as 
they came. 

I helped Tom to several more broad-mouthed bottles, and 
the next day he caught three pints of ants and sand. By this 
time the whole yard seemed panic-stricken, and the little 
fellows were to be seen meeting on all sides. Tom set out his 
bottles again in the early morning, but went to town with me 
to hold the horse. When we reached home, I passed by the 
battle-ground, and met with a surprise. There were but few 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 8 1 

ants in any of the bottles, and around the mouth of each was a 
circle of sand half an inch high, the inner slope toward the oil. 
The next day the bottles were half full of sand, and the mag- 
nifying-glass showed me the toilers carrying grains to the top 
of their fortifications and rolling them down the slope into the 
bottle. 

A day or two after this I found Tom sitting by the bottles 
and watching his old enemies at work. They had filled the 
bottles with sand, bored out channels, and were dragging their 
dead to the surface and down into the underground city. As 
he watched, Tom scratched his ankles, where already a few 
wanderers had set their nippers. The bottles were placed in 
different positions, but the result was the same every time. 
Now the ingenuity of the little Negro was wonderful, and the 
reasoning of the ants marvelous; but* the most interesting 
feature was the fact that the plan adopted to fill those bottles 
was a general one, and began at each place of danger. That 
seems to argue that the ant has a language of some kind. 

Baby in the Tree Top 

"RocK-A-BY baby in the tree top; 
When the wind blows the cradle will rock; 
When the bough bends the cradle will fall, 
And down come the baby, cradle, and all. " 

Iva: I wonder where babies live in the tree tops. See this 
leaf. Hazel, with a little red berry on it. 

Hazel: Not long ago I found an oak leaf with a green apple 
onit, about as big as a marble. 

Glenn: Was it good to eat? 

Hazel: I didn't try to eat it. 

Harold: Let's see what Iva's berry looks like inside. Ha ! 
here's something alive! Queer house, I should say 
6 



82 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




Gall-fly: I am Mrs. Gall-fly, children, and my first name is 
Cy'nips. That round berry is my child's cradle. The wind 

blew so hard last night that the leaf 
was broken off, and down came baby, 
cradle, and all. 

Iva: How could your baby ever 
get inside.^ I don't see any door. 
QdU imeci Cynips: Next spring if you look 

sharp you may see some of my sisters doing just what I did 
last spring, humming about among the trees looking for a nice, 
tender leaf in which to lay an egg. If we gall-flies laid no eggs 
there would be no oak-galls, or apples, as you call them. We 
each have an auger hidden in our body with which to bore holes 
in the oak leaves, and there we leave our eggs. When the egg 
is laid, the little mother pours over it a drop of liquid, which 
has a wonderful effect on the leaf. It mixes with its sap and 
makes a swelling, or gall, which keeps growing till it is as large 
sometimes as a small apple. Why this liquid should cause 
this growth on the leaf, the wisest men can not tell. The egg 
inside the gall grows, too; it grows to be three or four times as 
large as when it was first left there. After a while the larva is 
hatched, and finds that its careful mother has its board and 
lodging all arranged for. 

Iva: What does it have to eat.^ 

Cynips: It eats its house. It is about as dry and crumbly 
as cork, but baby Cynips likes it, and has nothing to do but to 
eat and grow. 

Glenn: Just fancy a baby living inside a ball, and eating 
its house, and staying there until it grows up. 

Harold: How does it ever get out of the gall i 

Cynips: It cuts a little round door, as you see in the picture 
on the next page, and then walks out. It needs no one to 
teach it how to do this work. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



83 




THE FLY THAT MAKES MARBLES 

Hazel: Is there more than one kind of gall? 
Cynips: Thousands; so many they are without number, 
and new kinds are being found all the time. There are more 

than forty kinds that grow on oak- 
trees alone. Some leaf-galls are very 
beautiful, being yellow, orange, and 
red, like apples. Currant-galls are 
also pretty, as well as those that 
grow on rose leaves. Some are 
rough and prickly like the one in the 
picture, while others are as smooth 
as though they had been polished. 
Iva: Is there more than one egg in each gall.^^ 
Cynips: Sometimes there are several, each having its own 
little room. Each insect makes its own 
kind of gall. Some kinds of oak-galls in 
Asia and Turkey are used to make ink. 
A kind of gall found on the shores of the 
Dead Sea is called apples of Sodom. The 
galls are as large as apples, and are a lovely 
color on the outside, but inside they are 
filled with dry dust. 

Harold: We must see how many kinds 
of galls we can find next summer. 

Cynips: They are found everywhere. 
The nail gall-mite is so small it can scarcely 
be seen except with a microscope. Its galls 
are red and green, and may be found on 
lime-trees. They are the size of a tack a 
quarter of an inch high, and there are 
a large number of mites in each gall. There 





A ROUGH GALL 




84 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

IS also a little currant-mite found in England and Scotland 

which makes the buds grow like wee cabbages. Still another 

lives under leaves, which it pricks, making 

bright red or brown blisters, which make the 

leaves curl up. When thus curled, they form 

inktnor a tcnt undcr which thousands of these in- 

^ ^ ^^ sects find shelter. 

Iva: I have seen little red galls on maple leaves. Are 
they made by gall-flies, too.^ 

Cynips: Yes ; they are made by the maple-mite, and when 
the galls are grown, the leaves look as though they were sprin- 
kled with red beads. The hazel-mite makes the hazel buds 
grow round, and stops their growth. The 
elm gall-mite causes little round swellings 
to come out on the elm leaves. 

Iva: Are there other kinds of gall- 
flies.? 

Cynips: Many, many more. In 
one gall, called the oak-apple, are 
large families. Sometimes the ^ ^''^ '7iU°^aut'^ 
brothers live in one house and the 
sisters in another. The bramble gall-fly pierces the stems of 
plants instead of the leaves, and the young larvae live in the 
stalk till spring, when they come out as flies. One gall-fly 
makes marbles. Its galls are about the size of a marble, and 
are as round and smooth, but not so heavy, and probably 
would not roll on the ground so well. On the tree they are 
green, but they turn brown. The insect lives in them through 
the winter, and comes out through a round door in the spring. 

Harold: Next summer we will look for some. I think we 
must have a little note-book and write down the different things 
we want to look for, so as not to forget when we go out into 
the woods and fields. 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 85 

Cynips: See how many different kinds of galls you can 
find. Remember that they are the work of a little insect 
which God taught how to make a house for her children, 
each kind in a different way. When you get them all together, 
they will make a pretty collection. 

A STRANGE BOARDING-HOUSE 

Glenn: See this picture. Hazel. What kind of insect do 
you suppose it is .^ 

Hazel: Let us ask mother. 

Mother: That is an ich-neu'mon-fly, but it belongs to the 
bee and wasp family, instead of to the fly family. 
Harold: Then it is a hy-men-op'ter. 
Hazel: Is the insect as large as the picture.^ 
Mother: Yes. This is the picture of a fly caught by a boy 

thirteen years old. He 
found it on one of our 
common shade-trees. 
Harold: I should 
think it had tails 
enough — three. 

Iva: The tails look 
like ribbons streaming 
out behind the fly. 

Mother: They are neither 

tails nor ribbons. They are long 

lances, which enable the insect to 

ICHNEUMON-FLY fcach thc IdiVY^ of othcr insects when 

laying its eggs. The mother ichneumon lays her eggs in their 

bodies, or near the eggs of other insects. 

Harold: The lances must be several inches long. 
Mother: In some ichneumons they are four and one-half 
inches in length, but some are much shorter. 




S6 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Glenn: Can the ichneumon-fly sting? 

Mother: No; but it sometimes frightens people by pricking 
their hands, so they are glad to let it go. 

Hazel: Please tell us, mother, why she lays her eggs in the 
bodies of other insects. 

Mother: She does it to provide a boarding-house for her 
children where they can live on others. 

Harold: Do the larvae of the ichneumons eat other larvae 
as food? 

Mother: Yes. We shall not find much to admire in this 
insect, except that it destroys some other insects that would 
injure our crops. It is deceitful and 
cowardly; it will linger near where the 
little carpenter-bee is building her nest, 
■^-<^^>^^^^^W ^-^^^<^i^} and when the unselfish little mother has 
filled one of her rooms with food, laid an 
Qgg, and gone for material to make a 
door, the ichneumon sneaks into the 
nest, lays an t^^ beside the one laid by 
Mrs. Bee, and flies away before she comes 
back. When the little bee mother returns, she shuts up the 
room and fastens inside a foe that will devour her child as soon 
as it is alive. Before the baby bee is grown, the ichneumon 
Q,^g will hatch, and the fat baby bee becomes its food. Another 
trick the ichneumon has is to lay its eggs on the skin outside, 
or even inside, the bodies of caterpillars. Here is a picture of 
the kind that does this way. It is not like the other family of 
ichneumons, and its lance is very short. Its children like 
nothing better than to board inside the body of a big, fat cater- 
pillar, but the poor caterpillar has a hard time. The family of 
maggots inside makes her feel squeamish; so she eats a hearty 
meal, which only makes her boarders inside grow the faster. 
Glenn: I should think the caterpillar would die. 




ICHNEUMON' 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 87 

Mother: It does at last. Perhaps some day you will have a 
large caterpillar which you hope to see change into a beautiful 
moth or butterfly. But it begins to droop and waste away, 
and soon you find it covered with little white things that look 

like the tiniest grains of rice 
standing on end. These are 
fastened to the skin. Soon 
after they appear, the cater- 
pillar dies. From those little 
white grains come green in- 
sects like flies, having four 
wings, and antennae that keep 
••••'' '''''•"-"••••••■ ••"""""7.'!.. •......:. moving all the time. They 

"LOOKING VERY FIERCE" ^^^ ichuCUmOUS which haVC 

boarded with the caterpillar during their larval and pupal 
states. A few caterpillars save themselves by looking very 
fierce when they hear Mrs. Ichneumon in the air, as a hen 
ruffles her feathers to protect her brood. 

Hazel: Do ichneumons prey on anything but caterpillars? 

Mother: There is one that lives on bees, another on spiders, 
and still other insects are troubled with these parasites. 

Glenn: What is a parasite? 

Mother: It is a creature that lives at the expense of 
others, instead of providing for itself. 

Harold: Can people be parasites? 

Mother: Yes. So never let another do for you that which 
you are able to do for yourself. 

THE FLY WITH A SAW 

Mother: How many wings has the common fly? 
Glenn: Two. 

Mother: The saw-fly has four. When at rest the wings are 
separate, but when flying they are hooked together, like the 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




5aw 



wings of wasps and bees, which be- 
long to the same family. The 
head and thorax of the saw-fly are 
usually black, and the ab- 
domen striped with black. 
At the end of the abdomen 
are two hard, horny flat plates. 
There are saw-like teeth on one 
side of these plates, and the other 
is thick like a carpenter's saw. Can you 
guess why this is so? 

Hazel: To make them strong. 
Mother: That is right. To see how perfect they are, we 
should examine them through a microscope. They are used to 
make the home of the baby saw-flies. With her saws the 
mother cuts a groove in a leaf, a twig,. or even in solid wood, an 
tgg is placed, and then another groove is sawed, and she keeps 
at her work until a large number of grooves are made and eggs 
placed in the nests made for them, and there they are made 
fast with a glue that the insect carries for that purpose. 
Harold: Do the eggs become larvae? 

Mother: Yes ; and they look very much 
like caterpillars. We may find some on 
the currant bushes, for they are often seen 
on their leaves. Here are pictures of the 
saw-fly and its children. They are larger 
than natural size, so that you may see them 
better. 

Hazel: I am sure I have seen them. 
Mother: There are so many kinds it 
T^^Pmmnmr^^ would be Strange if you had 
^ ^,^^^^^^g^&>^^^ not. One species lives on 

^ ^^^^^© pme-trees. ihere are two 

Larvae ^^ 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 89 

varieties that do great damage. The larvae of the first are 
called slug-worms, their bodies being covered with a sticky- 
liquid, used for protection no doubt. They flatten out in 
the daytime and look like a lump of slime. At night they 
do much harm to fruit-trees. 
Iva: What is the other kind? 
Mother: It is called the turnip-fly, or nigger. 
Harold: Do saw-flies eat turnips.^ 

Mother: O, no! but the larvae eat the turnip tops, and they 
are what do the mischief. Sometimes large fields of turnips 
are destroyed by them in two or three days. The mother fiy 
lays her eggs on the under side of the leaves, and the eggs grow 
to three times their original size before they hatch, on the ninth 
day. When the larvae are hatched, they are as hungry as bears, 
and in two minutes they may be seen in a row on the edge of 
the turnip leaf, eating it, with their tails high in the air. They 
have a trick of curling up in a ring and falling to the ground 
if touched. 

Hazel: Is this the picture of a saw-fly? 
Mother: Yes; it is the one called Si'rex gigas. This saw-fly 
has an auger instead of a saw, with which she bores into solid 

wood. This borer is so strong that if 

it is bent, it will spring back like a 

sword of steel. It is sometimes as 

large as a needle, and an inch long. 

It looks so dangerous that most people 

are glad to let Mrs. Sirex alone. She 

has such strong jaws that she has been 

known to eat her way through sheets 

iREx GIGA ^^ \Q2id a quarter of an inch thick. 

The saw-flies form a very large and interesting family of 

hymenopters. 




ORTHOPTERA 



The Grasshopper 



Iva: I see you, Mr. Green Grasshopper. You look so like 
that fern stalk I could not find you at first, though I could hear 
you plainly enough. 

Grasshopper: My color protects me from my enemies and 
helps me to hide away. Do you like my song. Miss Iva.^ 

Iva: O, yes ! It must be fine to sing like that. Please tell 
me how you make such a big noise. 

Grasshopper: I cling fast to whatever I am standing on, 
press my body down hard, and then tremble or shudder all 
over. The Creator has filled the world with music made 
by a vast number of insect mu- 
sicians. There is a large orchestra 
that fills the air with a low, peace- 
ful, soothing melody. 

Hazel: I suppose other things 

1 • 1 • ^ 1 • T COMMON GRASSHOPPER 

besides insects make music. 1 

remember a little stanza of poetry which reads like this: — 

''Do you ever hear, as I hear, 'mid the hubbub of the town. 
Soft music made by silvery waves upon the quiet shore; 

Or the laughter of glad winds that rush across the open down 
To dry the tearful blossoms when an April shower is o'er? 

Do you ever know, as I know, how these undertones can drown 
AH the strident sounds of labor, and the traffic's ceaseless 
roar?" 

Grasshopper: I suppose the insects that drum in the trees, 
fiddle in the bushes, and buzz in the air, add to the harmony of 
the music of nature. 

Harold: I think it is all a song of praise to the Creator for 

90 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 9 1 

clear sunshine and blue skies. I remember there is a psalm 

which says: — 

'Praise the Lord from the earth, 
Ye dragons, and all deeps; 
Fire and hail, snow and vapor; 
Stormy wind fulfilling his word; 
Mountains and all hills; 
Fruitful trees and all cedars; 
Beasts and all cattle; 
Creeping things and flying fowl. " 

I suppose the creeping things we read of in the Bible mean 
insects, like bees, grasshoppers, and all the other kinds we see. 

Grasshopper: I am glad to unite my song with the rest in 
praising the God who made us. 

Hazel: Were you always a grasshopper, as you are now? 

Grasshopper: Unlike most insects, when I was larva and 
pupa I looked very much like my parents. I was hatched 
from an ^gg my mother laid last September. Many eggs laid 
by grasshoppers are eaten by birds and animals; but, happily 
for me, the one from which I came escaped that fate. I was 
at first a tiny baby grasshopper, only I had no wings. Six 
times I changed my skin, and each time my new skin was 
larger than the one I had before, as your clothes are made 
larger each time you have a new suit. When I got my sixth 
change of dress, I had wings, and felt as proud as a boy with his 
first pair of trousers. I could then take long jumps, which 
made me so merry I have been singing ever since. 

Harold: How long did it take you to grow as big as you are 
now.^ 

Grasshopper: After four months I changed from larva to 
pupa, and it took about one month for my wings to grow, so 
you see I am now about five months old. 

Hazel: To what family do you belong, Mr. Grasshopper? 



92 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Grasshopper: The Or-thop'te-ra, because we have long, nar- 
row, straight wings. The outside pair are used to cover the 
under ones. These are broad, and fold up like a fan when not 
in use. We have long, slender horns, or antennae. 

Glenn: I should like to know how you can leap so far. I 
try to jump some, but believe you could beat me, if our sizes 
were to be compared. 

Grasshopper: You must have noticed my long hind legs. 
I can not walk very well, because they are so much longer than 
the others, but I am a champion jumper. When I want to leap, 
I straighten my long legs, give a spring, and 
away I go. My wings help, of course, but I 
am thankful indeed for my long legs, 
which many times help me to get out of 
the way of danger. 

Harold: What do you eat? 

Grasshopper: Nearly all the Or-thop'te-ra 
family are vegetarians; that is, we eat the leaves 
and stalks of plants. I bite off wee bits of leaf, 
which are ground into powder in my gizzard. 
Since I eat green things, I am made to look like 
them. 

Glenn: Birds have gizzards; insects do not. grasshopper 

Grasshopper: Mr. Wood says that grasshoppers have giz- 
zards, and he ought to know, for he has studied insects enough. 
He says my digesting place is larger in one part, and that if it 
is cut open there may be seen some narrow bands, which, when 
placed under a microscope, show rows of small teeth, which 
grind to powder the leaves I eat. 

Hazel: Do you have ears .^ 

Grasshopper: My ears are on each side of my body, just 
back of my hind legs. They are round, and can be seen if my 
wings are lifted. 




NARROW-LEAVED 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 93 

Harold: Do you sing with your mouth? 

Grasshopper: I sing with my wings. I rub them together, 
as you draw a bow across the strings of a fiddle. Sometimes I 
strike them together, as the man in the band strikes the cym- 
bals, and I tremble all over. 

Iva: Where do you live.^^ 

Grasshopper: In almost all countries, but we flourish best 
where it is very warm. 

Glenn: Do you have any relatives? 

Grasshopper: Plenty of them. There are many kinds of 
grasshoppers, and also the locust. He is my first cousin, 
though some people think he is my brother, and can hardly 
tell us apart. The Or-thop'te-ra family is divided into two 
classes, one of which have long hind legs like myself, which en- 
able them to make long jumps. To this family belong the 
locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets. 

Harold: How do the other members of your family differ 
from you ? 

Grasshopper: They have six legs, adapted to running in- 
stead of jumping, and they know how to use them. Cousin 
Locust can jump farther than any other member of our family. 

Hazel: Can he sing? 

Grasshopper: Yes; his song is produced by rubbing his legs 
across his wing-cases, one at a time. His music is louder than 
mine, for he has a drum on each side of his body, filled with air 
and covered with thin skin. Here he comes. I think he will 
be glad to tell vou about his travels, for he has been in all parts 
of the world. 

THE LOCUST 

Harold: Glad to see you, Mr. Locust. Will you please tell 
us about yourself and your travels? 

Locust: My name comes from a word which means burnt 




94 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

place. Perhaps you have already noticed that my horns are 
not so long as Cousin Grasshopper's. My body is more stout. 
There is not very much difference between us, and one is often 
taken for the other. I am sure, however, that people like 
cousin better than me, for locusts are known as crop destroyers; 
but Cousin Grasshopper sometimes does considerable damage. 

Iva: What do baby locusts look like? 

Locust: Some like grasshoppers. When they are about a 
month old, you may find them on bushes and trees wriggling 
and twisting about until 
their skin bursts open. First 
you see a pair of bright*eyes, 
then a head, and after that 
the whole body. Locusts 
have gauzy wings, and are 
greenish brown in color. Our eastern locust 

wings sometimes serve as sails when we cross the water. 

Harold: I have heard that locusts form themselves into 
armies. 

Locust: After they are hatched, they gather together like 
soldiers going to war. 

Hazel: I read in the Bible that "the locusts have no king, 
yet they go forth all of them by bands. " 

Locust: That is true. They go straight ahead, and nothing 
can break their ranks. If they come to a building or anything 
else that stands in their way, they go over it and proceed on 
their journey. 

Glenn: Mother told us that you do great damage in hot 
countries, and even in temperate climates. 

Harold: I believe there is a Bible verse that says that they 
are " like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble," 
and it also says that "the land is as the garden of Eden before 
them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



95 



Hazel: I remember reading that the locusts came as a 
plague in the land of Egypt. "And the locusts went up over 
all the land of Egypt, and rested on all the coasts of Egypt: 
. . . they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land 
was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all 
the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there re- 




From a photograph 



STORM OF LOCUSTS IN AFRICA 



mained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the 
field, through all the land of Egypt. " 

Harold: It must have looked then as though a fire had 
swept over the country. 

Locust: Even now in some parts of the world, as India, 
Africa, and some countries of Europe, as well as in parts of 
America, we are counted pests. We fly in bands, or swarms. 
I suppose the reason we do so much harm is because there are 
so many of us. 



96 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Harold: I read that a swarm of locusts appears like a cloud 
of dense smoke, and when they fall they come as thick as rain- 
drops or snowflakes in a heavy storm. The sun can not be seen 
and the trees cast no shadow. 

Iva: How can you fly so far? 

Locust: We fill our bodies with air, and the wind helps us 
along. We travel from three to twenty miles an hour. From 
Asia we go to Europe, a distance of four or five hundred miles. 
In North America we have been known to travel a thousand 
miles. We can go five hundred miles without stopping, if con- 
ditions are favorable. We have been known to cross large 
bodies of water. 

Glenn: Do you travel at night? 

Locust: Sometimes, if the weather is warm, and the wind 
comes from a direction that will help us. But we usually be- 
gin a journey as soon as the dew is off, and settle down as night 
approaches. 

Iva: Why do you go on such journeys ? 

Locust: To get food. We are always hungry, and I have 
such a multitude of brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, and 
cousins, and other relatives, that it takes a great quantity to 
feed all of us. Sometimes we look like stormy clouds, the sky 
is black with us, and we cover the ground when we fall. The 
Bible speaks of our coming and the noise we make as ''the 
noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains." Others have 
likened this noise to that made by a mighty waterfall. When 
we light in the trees, the branches break under our weight. We 
eat every green thing, and even gnaw the roots of plants in the 
ground. Sometimes we can not find enough to satisfy us, and 
die of hunger. Then our decaying bodies make the people ill. 
Ships crossing the Mediterranean Sea sometimes have their 
sails covered with swarms of locusts. 

Harold: I suppose people try to get rid of you? 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 97 

Locust: We have many enemies. In 1780, in Transylva- 
nia, the army was called out to fight us. The soldiers gathered 
my unfortunate relatives in sacks; but, though they crushed, 
burned, and buried them, still there seemed to be as many as 
before. A cold wind caused them to disappear, but they came 
back the next spring as hungry as ever, and the people said 
they ruined the country. 

Hazel: I read that travelers in Central Africa found the 
surface of rivers so covered with the bodies of locusts that the 
water could not be seen. 

Harold: There must be millions of them; for some trav- 
elers say they have seen locusts piled on the ground two feet 
deep as far as the eye could reach. 

Glenn: I have read that very strange things are done to 
drive them out of the country. In Sudan the Negroes yell 
at them; in Hungary cannon are fired to frighten them away; 
in the middle ages monks formed processions, went into the 
fields, and cursed the locusts. Some of them were caught 
and told to leave the country in three hours and go to sea, 
and that the birds, animals, and tempests would destroy them 
if they remained; then they were let go, that they might tell 
the rest. 

Hazel: The Arabs write a prayer on paper, fasten it to 
a reed, and place it in a field of wheat. Others write a verse 
of the Koran on the wings of four locusts, and let them fly 
away. It is believed that this will cause them to leave. Is 
it true that some people eat locusts ? 

Locust: It is; in some countries we are salted and dried, and 
in Asia and Africa we are sold for food. 

Harold: A gentleman riding on horseback on the island of 

Mitylene toward the end of May, heard a sharp, pattering 

noise like rain-drops falling on hard ground. Looking closely, 

he saw a countless multitude of tiny black insects not much 

7 



98 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

larger than the head of a pin. He could see them hopping and 
springing about under the feet of his horse, and, though he rode 
many miles, yet they still pattered down. They had just 
hatched from eggs laid the year before. Three days before 
not a locust was to be seen. Great kettles of boiling water 
were placed by the roadside, and all the people in the country 
went out hunting locusts. They caught enough in one day 
within less than five square miles to weigh twenty-three thou- 
sand pounds. A child of six years, could gather as many as 
a man. 

Hazel: How could they catch so many? 

Harold: They used sacks and brooms. The empty sack 
was placed open on the ground, and the locusts were swept 
into it as fast as one could move his arms. The people were 
paid half a cent a pound for all they gathered, and some earned 
fifty or seventy-five cents a day, or, in English money, two or 
three shillings. The sacks were thrust into the kettles of boil- 
ing water, and then the insects thrown into the river. The 
gentleman said the locusts had been in Mitylene for three 
years before the year in w^hich he saw them, and that they gen- 
erally went away the fourth year. Ten days from the time 
they first appeared they had grown to be large insects, and 
were as hungry as ever. 

Glenn: Was there more than one kind? 

Harold: Yes, several, and some were much larger than 
others. The hind legs of the largest kind were nearly 
three inches long, twice the length of their bodies. They 
could jump about twelve or fifteen feet. They had long sharp 
claws, and when they took hold of an object they would not 
let go. They had armor on their heads and shoulders. 

Iva: What color were they? 

Harold: Some were bright green like the grasshopper; 
'o'hers had brown backs and were yellow underneath; while 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 99 

others were speckled, and still others were nearly black and had 
very long wings. One kind had long feelers, nearly twice the 
length of its body, and big tusks with saws inside, and its bite 
was strong enough to bend a pin. It had horny eyes, which it 
could not shut, and its head was some like that of a lobster. 
It had scales on its body, and when it moved they creaked like 
our new shoes. 

Iva: I am glad there are none of that kind in this country. 

Harold: I think we may well be glad, for they would not 
leave us much to eat. All these different kinds of locusts made 
a swarm of millions and billions. It would be as easy to count 
the flakes of a snow-storm or the sand by the sea as to count 
their number. They got into the food; they ate holes in the 
bedding; they were in pockets; they crawled in the hair. One 
could not take a step without treading on them, and they 
hopped onto the food a person was putting into his. mouth. 
They ate clothing as one walked about, and ate the soles off the 
shoes, and the clothes hanging in the wardrobe. They ate the 
hair off the heads of women. Everywhere families might be 
seen wailing over the ruin wrought. There was no way to pro- 
tect persons or crops from their ravages. One man had a little 
garden in which he took great pride. At first he kept fires all 
around it to keep the insects from crawhng in. When they 
could fly, he fired guns to drive them away. He turned a gar- 
den-engine on them; and then he buried them. But in spite of 
all his efforts every green thing was taken. 

Glenn: How long did they stay t 

Harold: About three weeks. A great wind came up, and 
they were svv^ept into the sea and drowned. For many days 
afterward one could not walk on the shore or bathe in the 
water because of the stench arising from their decaying 
bodies. The great Mediterranean Sea seemed to be covered 
with a crust of locusts, as far as one could see. 



lOO 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Hazel: I wonder where our locust has gone while we have 
been talking. 

Locust: I am still near by, and am glad to say that I am not 
the kind of which you have been hearing. 

Glenn: Do you have any other relatives besides the grass- 
hopper.^ 

Locust: Quite a number. Those I am best acquainted 
with are the crickets, the mantises, and the cockroaches. 



Crickets 

Cricket: Good evening, children. I hope you are enjoying 
the concert; there is to be one every evening while summer 
lasts. 

Glenn: Could you stop your part long enough to tell us 
your history, and that of some of your relatives.^ 

Cricket: With pleasure, if you care to listen. I came from 
an tgg which my mother 
placed in a crack in the 
ground. I have two or three 
hundred brothers and sisters, 
so you see there are enough 
of us to make merry. We 
remained larvae all winter, 
and this summer we grew 
into full-grown crickets. 

Iva: What a large family! Did you all live together.^ 

Cricket: O, no; some of us found our way to a large stone, 
and for a time we lived very pleasantly together, but as we got 
older we grew cross and quarrelsome; each of us wanted the 
best things, and at last we grew so selfish that we could not be 
together two minutes without kicking, biting, and quarreling 
with one another. At last each of us went away by himself to 




HOUSE- AND FIELD-CRICKETS 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest lOl 

make a home of his own. You found me here by my front 
door. 

Hazel: I do not see any door nor any house. 

Cricket: This hole in the ground is my house. I do not dig 
straight down as you dig a well, but in a slanting direction, to 
keep out the rain. In my pantry I have a good supply of seeds, 
fruit, and grass, which I expect to use as food. 

Iva: Will you let us take a peep inside? 

Cricket: O, no! I am greatly frightened if anybody comes 
near, and while taking part in the concert I always stand near 
the door, so I can go in backward if necessary. When I hear 
any one coming, I stop my music till he has passed by. 

Glenn: I don't believe the grasshopper lays up any food, 
and I think he is a cousin of yours. I once read that an ant 
and a grasshopper lived near each other, and while the ant 
worked very hard storing food for winter, the grasshopper 
spent his time swinging on the tall ferns or playing his fiddle. 
When winter came, he went to the ant and begged for some 
food. "What were you doing all summer.^" asked the ant. 
**I played and sang," said the grasshopper. ''Go, then," 
replied the ant, ''and dance the winter away." 

Harold: There is a verse in the Bible that says, "The slug- 
gard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg 
in harvest, and have nothing. " 

Cricket: I am sorry my cousin is not more sensible; but 
have you ever heard of the mole-cricket? 

Harold: I have seen a picture of one and its house. Please 
tell us about it. 

Cricket: It lives under the ground like the mole. It has 
finger-like spades on its fore legs, with which it digs in the earth. 
It burrows out rooms in the ground, leaving one especially as a 
nursery for its children. This room is about three inches long 
and an inch high. 



I02 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




NEST OF THE MOLE-CRICKET 



Iva: Does it chirp like other crickets ? 

Cricket: Yes; that is our way of calling to our mates. 

Glenn: I put a straw down the hole of a cricket one day, and 
the little fellow grabbed 
it and hung on till I drew 
him out. 

Cricket: It makes us 
very angry to have any- 
thing stuck through our 
doorway. 

Hazel: Some crickets 
live in people's houses. 

Cricket: We like to be 
warm and cozy, so a crack near the stove or in the chimney- 
corner is exactly to our taste. If the house is warm enough, 
we stay about all winter and pay our rent by making merry 
music for the people the year round. 

Iva: How can you make such a big noise, when you are 
so little? 

Cricket: We use our wing-cases, rubbing the edges to- 
gether briskly. 

Hazel: I have heard that you do much mischief by eating 
woolen things, especially when they are wet. 

Cricket: We do very little harm, and hardly ever eat cloth- 
ing. The reason we like wet things is because we are thirsty 
and do not know where to get a drink. 

Harold: What do you eat 1 

Cricket: I like fresh, tender grass as well as anything. The 
house-cricket likes some of the things you eat, such as bread, 
sugar, and some kinds of fruit. As a family we are all hard 
drinkers, but never take anything stronger than water. A 
sparkling dewdrop just suits me, and I am sure no better or 
sweeter drink was ever made than pure, cold water. I am 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 103 

always thirsty, and must have plenty of water to drink or I 
should die. 

Glenn: What shall you do when winter comes? 

Cricket: I shall shut myself up in some snug place where 
I shall not freeze to death, and there sleep all winter. 

Iva: What shall you have to eat.^ 

Cricket: I shall not eat anything. When I awake from my 
long sleep, I am ready to eat and drink enough to make up for 
lost time. 

Hazel: I shall repeat a little rhyme for you : — 

''Old Dame Hickett 
Had a wonderful cricket 
That lived in a hole by the fender. 
And when he came out, 
He would dance all about 
On his hind legs so long and so slender." 

Cricket: If you ever go to the Smithsonian museum in 
Washington, D. C, you may there see a cricket called the 
Idaho devil. It is almost black. There are so many of them 
in some of the Western States that one can hardly step at all 
without crushing them. 

Glenn: I suppose there are crickets everywhere. 

Cricket: Even in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, there are 
some that live far below the top of the ground. They have 
very long legs and horns, but no ears and no musical organs, so 
they are perfectly quiet. 



The Cricket 

The cricket lives in the cold^ cold ground 

At the foot of an old oak-tree^ 

And all through the frosty autumn night 

A merry song sings he. 

Then he whistles a clear and happy tune, 

By the gentle light of the silver moon. 

The winds may moan with a hollow tone 

Through the leaves of the rustling tree; 

The clouds may fly across the blue sky, 

The flowers may droop, and the brook may sigh. 

But not in the least cares he. 

He whistles a clear and happy tune. 

By the gentle light of the silver moon, 

All through the frosty autumn night, 

And not in the least cares he. 



There^s a tiny cricket within my heart, 

And a pleasant song sings he; 

He sings of the kindness and goodness of God, 

Which he daily shows to me. 

Let the cricket whistle loud and clear. 

Never drive him away with a tear; 

There^s darkness enough on the earth, even now, 

Without the gloom of a frowning brow. 

Cheer up the heart that is clouded in night; 

Tell it, in words of love. 

Of hope on earth, and a land all bright — 

The land of life and love; 

And never fret when you can not get 

Just what you want while you travel here. 

— Selected. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



loS 



A Little Hypocrite 




Mother: Last summer when I was in Virginia, I noticed a 
strange insect in the roadway, and on stooping down to look 
at it more closely I saw it was a mantis. I had 
seen its picture in books, and it looked exactly 
like one I shall show you, and this was its size, 
^^a-wtis. When I touched it with a stick, it held up its 

fore legs as this one is doing. 

Harold: Do mantises eat all green things, as the locusts.^ 

Mother: No, they eat insects. You see in this other picture 
the mantis has caught a fly. It will sit for hours on a plant 
without moving, and so deceive its victims, for it is about the 
color of the leaves. 

Iva: Does it keep its fore legs raised while it is waiting to 
catch a fly.^ 

Mother: Yes, and that pious attitude has given it many 
different names, such as saint, preacher, suppliant, and diviner. 
Its raising its long front legs like arms toward heaven has led 
many to believe that the mantis can foretell future events^ 
and that if a child were lost 
and asked its way, the man- 
tis would point the direc- 
tion by stretching out one 
of its long legs. Some think 
it is praying while sitting 
that way, and in Central Af- 
rica the natives worship it. 
But watch it as a fly comes 
near. You will see it steal- 
ing toward the fly as a cat toward a mouse, and quick as light- 
ning the fly is seized between the legs, and soon devoured. 
Some people call it the praying-mantis, but others think it 




MANTIS WITH FLY 



lo6 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

should be called the preying-mantis. Do you see the dif- 
ference ? 

Harold: Yes, the spelling <5f the words. 

Iva: I think it looks wicked. I'm glad it doesn't live here. 

Mother: Where the mantises are found, the boys think it 
sport to drive them about with strings tied to their long necks. 
They are sometimes called devil's horses and rearhorses. They 
are very quarrelsome, and will fight fiercely with one another. 

Glenn: They try to make others believe they are better 
than they really are. 

Harold: People who do that are called hypocrites. 

Mother: Their name means sorcerer, and was given them, 
I suppose, because they are deceivers. 

Harold: They seem to be among insects what lions and 
tigers are among animals. 

Mother: They are even more cruel than these animals, for 
they will kill and eat one another as quickly as they will eat a 
fiy. The baby mantises hurry away to hide from the older 
members of the family as soon as they are hatched. 

Hazel: Are they as cruel as their parents .^ 

Mother: Yes, they do the very same things. Sometimes 
the mother mantis, after playing a long time with her mate, 
will pounce upon him and kill him. 

Glenn: Then she is even worse than a hypocrite. 

Mother: There are some good things about the mantis, 
even though it has so many bad traits. It is useful, because 
it devours many bugs, files, and caterpillars that destroy our 
gardens and orchards. Some gardeners gather mantis's eggs 
from wild lands, and place them where, when hatched, they 
will protect the plants and trees. 

Iva: How can one gather such little eggs ? 

Mother: They are fastened together in small masses, or 
nests, about an inch long and a third of an inch wide. The 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



107 



mother ties them together with a kind of tough silk which keeps 
them in place, so they can be easily fastened to tree, bush, or 
vine. 

Harold: Is there more than one kind of mantis? 
Mother: O, yes! in Africa there is one called Em-pu'sa, 
which has horns dented like a comb, and cuffs for its arms, and 
a flounce on its robe. 

Hazel: I have heard that some mantises look almost like 
flowers. Is that true? 

Mother: Yes; in India and Africa there are some that ap- 
pear like the most beautiful blossoms, the very flowers that 

some insects value as food. 
When a butterfly or other in- 
sect lights to take a meal of 
honey, that which seems to be 
a beautiful flower greedily 
seizes it; it is crushed to 
death, and then devoured. It 
is like some kinds of sin that 
appear innocent and pleasant, 
but deceive and destroy. I 
hope you will remember the 
lesson to be learned from this 
insect, and look out lest you 
be caught in a snare. 

Glenn: What is this pic- 
ture, mother? 

Mother: It is a mantis found in India and Java that looks 
like a flower in form, color, and position. The thighs of four 
of its legs look like the petals of a flower, and the insect seats 
itself with two spread out on each side, and with its fore legs 
folded out of sight. 

Iva: I see a pair of shiny eyes that are watching. 




IMITATION OF 

A FLOWE 

BY A MANTIS 



io8 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Mother: I see them, too. There is a mantis in India of a 
pale violet color, and it hangs head downward among the green 
leaves, where it sways about like a flower touched by a gentle 
breeze. It looks like a blossom, and many an unlucky insect 
flies into the arms of the betrayer. This should teach us that 
all pretty things are not good and true. 

Hazel: Is the katydid a relative of the grasshopper and 
cricket? 

Mother: Yes; and we must not forget it while getting ac- 
quainted with the insects in this family. Here is its picture. 
Glenn: What long feelers it has, and it keeps them over 
its back instead of straight ahead. 

Mother: It is very careful of them, and I suppose can 
move them about in different directions if it wishes to do 
so. Some katydids have heads that look like that of a 
horse. They are really pretty and graceful insects. 
Foa: What color are they.^ 

Mother: The same as the leaves among which they live. 

One wears a gay green coat trimmed 
with bands and dots of red and yel- 
low. The katydids step from twig 
to twig, resting during the day among 
the green leaves, and seem to think 
It too hot to tell what Katy did until 
evening comes and the moths begin 
to fly. 

Harold: Do we see them before the 
first of August.^ 

Mother: I think not; yet they have 
been among the leaves all summer. The 
katydid does not have wings until that 
time; but when it gets its last new suit 
and wings, then we hear from it very soon. 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



109 



Glenn: How can the katydid talk and say, "Katy did, 
Katy did"? 

Hazel: Some of them say, "Katy didn't, Katy didn't," 
as well as, "Katydid, Katy did." Who is Katy, anyway, 
and what is it that she did or didn't do? 

Mother: That is a secret the katydids have never told. 
Perhaps Katy is Mrs. Katydid; for she never talks, and it 
may be that her mate likes to tell what she did. 

Iva: And perhaps his neighbors like to say that "Katy 
didn't." 

Mother: When I was in Arkansas camping out, the katy- 
dids filled the air with their chorus as soon as evening came, 
saying, "Katy did, Katy did, Katy did, she did, she did," 
and others seemed to say, " She didn't, she didn't." Their 
voices grew louder and louder, till they seemed to stop all 
at once, only to begin saying the same words over and over 
again. 

Harold: How do the katydids make such a noise? 

Mother: Near where the wings join the body there is a 
thin membrane which seems something like thin glass. This 
membrane is in a rough frame, and when the 
katydid opens and shuts its wing-covers, the 
frames rub together, and that makes the sound. 

Hazel: I think the katydids look 
like grasshoppers. 

Mother: There is a family like- 
ness. They lay their eggs under the 
grass, and they lie buried in the 
ground until spring. The baby katydids look 
like tiny grasshoppers without wings. They 
hop about during the summer until their wings 
are grown, and then join the orchestra, and 
make music during the evenings until cold 




no 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



weather comes. It is the broad-winged katydid that makes 
the sound that gives it its name. 

Glenn: Are there other katydids .^^ 

Mother: Yes, there are many members of this family. 
The narrow-winged katydid calls to his mate in a very gentle 
tone, ''Zeep, zeep, zeep, " and she answers with a chirp. 

Iva\ I wish I knew what they mean by saying, '' Katy 
did" and ^^Katy didn't." 

Mother: The cone-head katydid makes such a sharp, 
shrill noise that it makes a person feel like stopping his 
ears. The voices of some of this family 
of insects are not so loud and tiresome 
as others. I think it must have been of 
the more gentle-voiced ones that the poet 
said: — 

"I love to hear thine earnest voice 

Wherever thou art hid, 
Thou testy little dogmatist. 

Thou pretty katydid. 
Thou mindest me of gentlefolks. 

Old gentlefolks are they; 
Thou say'st an undisputed thing 

In such a solemn way." 

LIVING STICKS AND LEAVES 

Mother: There is a family of orthopters 
which is very odd. You have heard how 
an insect can look like a flower, but you 
would hardly expect one to appear like a 
dry stick. But look at this picture. If 
you look closely, I think you can see that 
one of the branches is what is called a 
stick-insect. Sometimes it is called a 
walking-stick. the walking-stick 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



III 




STICK-INSECT FROM SOLOMON ISLANDS (ABOUT ONE- 
THIRD NATURAL size) 



Harold: You don't mean to say that anything that looks 
like that is alive, do you ? 

Mother: Part of it is. Do you not see the long, straight 

body, the long legs, much 
like a stick, to be sure? 

Iva: Where do the 
stick-insects live? 

Mother: In South 
America, Asia, Africa, 
and New Holland. In 
this family we shall find 
the largest, perhaps I 
should say the longest, 
insects in the world. 
Hazel: Auntie saw a 
stick-insect a foot long in the British Museum. 

Mother: Yes, they are found as long as that, and as thick 
as one's finger. Their family name is Phas'ma. Sometimes 
they are called phantoms, devil's horses, and animated sticks. 
I suppose their long, slender bodies are the cause of their having 
such peculiar names. Their color is like the wood, but if you 
watch, you will soon see the shorter twigs begin to move, and 
lo! your stick is walking away. There is one member of the 
family that looks as 
though it were covered 
with moss. In Borneo 
these insects are found 
looking exactly like sticks 
overgrown with moss. 

Harold: Do they do 
any harm? 

Mother: No, they eat but little and molest nobody. If any 
one comes near, they gently walk away. It is said that some 




MOSS- INSECT 



112 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

eject a bad-smelling fluid when touched, but that is their only- 
means of protection, except their form and color. They like to 
stretch themselves out in the sun. The best-looking members 
of this family are found in Tasmania. 

Glenn: Now that we know there are insects like sticks and 
moss, we might expect to hear next that some look like leaves. 

Mother: And there are some of that kind. Look at this 
picture of the leaf-insect, and see if you would not be puzzled 
if it had lighted on a leafy 
branch, to tell which was in- 
sect and which were leaves. 
Its color is bright green; it 
has yellow markings like a 
leaf, and its whole appear- 
ance is as leaf-like as pos- 
sible. Then there are walking 

that look like dead, withered leaves. They ^^ walking 
are found on dry wood in Sumatra and 
India. They never light on green bushes or trees, but only 
on those having dry, dead leaves. Their form and color 
protect them from birds and other creatures that would de- 
vour them. It is vain to search for them, for one may look 
at the very spot where they light and see nothing at all; but 
suddenly the dead leaf at which one is looking darts out, then 
lights, and is a leaf again. 

Hazel: I suppose God made them that way to protect and 
keep them alive. 

Mother: I have read that there is a kind of beetle that looks 
like withered, crumpled leaves whose edges have been eaten 
off, and that some bugs appear like the skeletons of leaves. 
This all shows how the Creator planned to protect these little 
creatures, and it is very interesting to see them and learn 
their ways. 




NEUROPTERA 



The Dragon-Fly 



Hazel: What was that going through the air so quickly? 

Harold: Here is one. Will you please tell us your name? 

Glenn: I believe you are called darning-needle. Your 
body is long and slender 
enough to give you that 
name. 

Dragon-fly: That is 
only a nickname; I am 
also known as horse- 
stinger and spindle, 
though I neither spin nor 
sting. My real name is 
dragon-fly, but I am not 
a dragon nor a fly. I 
like best the name given 
me by the French peo- 
ple. They call me " little 
lady," and the Germans 
call me " maiden of the 
water." 

Harold: Do you be- 
long to the Dip'te-ra 
family? 

Dragon-fly : No. 
I have four gauzy wings that look like finest lace. That is 
because there are fine lines, or tubes, all over them covered 
with membrane above and beneath. They look like lace 
stretched on a frame. For this reason I belong to the 
Neu-rop'te-ra family, which means nerve-winged. 

8 113 




DRAGON-FLY 



114 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Iva: Then the white ants are your cousins, for they belong 
to that family. 

Dragon-fly: You mean the termites. Yes, we are cousins, 
but not at all alike. 

Glenn: Do you have as many eyes as the house-fly.^ 

Dragon-fly: I have over twelve thousand in one on each 
side of my head, and three more on my forehead. 

Harold: As the light flashes in your eyes, it makes them 
look like dewdrops in the sunshine. Do you fold your wings 
when not using them .^ 

Dragon-fly: No; they always stand out straight, as you 
see them now. In the sunlight they reflect all the tints of 
the rainbow. 

Iva: Can you fly fast.^ 

Dragon-fly: I think so. Our wings are very strong, and 
we never get tired. A man once watched a dragon-fly pur- 
sued by a swallow, and though that bird is very swift in flight, 
the dragon-fly kept ahead of him. I have heard that one of 
my brothers lighted on a ship when the nearest land was ^Yt 
hundred miles away. 

Harold: I think men would better take you as a model 
for the air-ships they are inventing. 

Dragon-fly: Did you notice my pretty red dress .^ 

Hazel: It is beautiful. Do all dragon-flies wear red t 

Dragon-fly: No; some wear bright blue or green; but we are 
always neat and well dressed, no matter what the color. 

Harold: What a strange mouth you have! 

Dragon-fly: My jaws move up and down like yours, so 
there is nothing strange about that, and I do not suck my food 
through a tube as some other insects do. 

Harold: No; but your thin lips move with your jaws in a 
very queer way. What do you eat? 

Dragon-fly: All kinds of insects that are small enough for 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 115 

me to capture. I am sometimes called the mosquito-hawk, 
because I devour so many of these troublesome pests. Some- 
times children and grown people, too, are afraid of me, though 
I can not see why, for I can not harm them. Just let me into 
your room, please, and I will soon eat up the flies and mos- 
quitoes. I have a good appetite. 

Iva: Where is your home.^ 

Dragon-fly: I like a dark swamp or a lonely pond best, for 
there I find good hunting-grounds. 

Glenn: Can you sting? 

Dragon-fly: Not at all. I suppose the habit of curling my 
body up and down leads some to believe I have a powerful sting 
and am waiting for a chance to use it. Perhaps that is what 
made them give me the name horse-stinger. 

Glenn: Have you been flying around hunting flies and mos- 
quitoes all your life? 

Dragon-fly: The most of my time I have lived in the water. 

Iva: Didn't your wings get wet when you lived there? 

Dragon-fly: I didn't have any wings then. My mother 
dropped her eggs Into the water as she was darting about over 
the pond. They were water-proof and sank to the bottom. 
It did not take long for them to hatch, and the flrst thing I 
remember is that I was lying in a mud cradle feeling very 
hungry. I began stealing about, slowly and quietly, as a cat 
does when hunting a mouse, and soon a young tadpole came 
within reach. 

Hazel: Did you succeed in catching the tadpole? 

Dragon-fly: To be sure I did. My 
jaws were hidden by a mask which 
covered the lower part of my face. 
Here is my picture taken just as I 
caught a water-sprite, though he was 
captured before he could wink. 




Ii6 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Glenn: Is that your mask that is just touching the insect? 

Dragon-fly: Yes, and it was very useful to me. It worked 
like a spring. If you look closely, you will see that this mask 
was my under lip, and it folded up in several parts, and was 
fastened to a rod with a hinge. Its edges have sharp teeth, 
and at the end are two pinchers. The mask served me as an 
under lip, as an arm, as a hook to catch my prey, and as a 
face covering. As soon as an insect was seized with it, the 
mask carried it to my jaws, and I began my meal. When I 
had finished, it covered my face so that nothing could be seen 
but my eyes, and I went on looking for more food, for I was 
always hungry. Thus I saved you a great deal of trouble; 
for the larvae I ate would have made troublesome mosqui- 
toes and other insects, 

Iva: How could you breathe down in the water? 

Dragon-fly: There was a long tube in my body the size of 
a pin, and at the tail were five points, or spikes. Through 
these I obtained air from the water, as a fish does. 

Harold: Did you always go creeping along in the mud? 

Dragon-fly: No, indeed; I could force water through the 
tube in my body just as you shoot it through a squirt-gun, and 
that pushed me through the water very swiftly. I believe the 
first man who thought of pushing a boat through the water 
with a propeller got the idea from some of my relatives. 

Iva: Did you change from larva to pupa? 

Dragon-fly: Certainly; all insects do that. My body and 
head were larger then than now. The case I lived in grew 
clear like glass, my eyes grew brighter, and I left the deep part 
of the pond and came near shore. 

Glenn: How long did you stay in the water? 

Dragon-fly : About a year; then I got tired of living in the 
mud. I did not care to eat, and I am sure my neighbors were 
not sorry for that. I began to long for sunshine and fresh air. 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 117 

so I climbed up on the stem of a tall plant till I was above water. 
Then I stuck the sharp hooks on my feet deep into the stem 
and clung. The sun and wind soon dried the case I had lived 
in. I began to squirm about and it split open 
in the back. My head, wings, and long body 
appeared, and there I hung as if dead. 

Glenn: It was well that some hungry bird 
did not spy you just then. What did you do 
next .^ 

Dragon-fly: I waited till my wings were dry 
and stood straight out as they do now. When 
I had grown quite strong, I sailed away in the 
air hunting for something to eat. I left my 
dried-up skin hanging to the plant. Perhaps when you 
visit the pond next time, you may find it and others like it 
hanging there. 

Harolds* Do you still wear your mask.^ 

Dragon-fly: No; I have no use for it now, and it was left 
behind. 

Hazel: Are all dragon-flies the same size? 

Dragon-fly: No; some are quite small, while others have 
wings measuring four inches from tip to tip, and their bodies 
are three inches long. 

Iva: Have you any relatives? 

Dragon-fly: Plenty of them. 

To-day I saw the dragon-fly 

Come from the wells where he did lie. 

An inner impulse rent the veil 

Of his old husk; from head to tail 

Came out clear plates of sapphire mail. 

He dried his wings; like gauze they grew; 

Through crofts and pastures wet with dew 

A living flash of light he flew. 

— Tennyson, 



ii8 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Day-Flies and Other Flies 

Hazel: Let us take a walk. Here we are at the river. 
How pretty the waterfall looks! 

Glenn: There is something alive in that bundle of sticks! 

Mother: That bundle 
of sticks, as you call it, 
Glenn, is the home of the 
caddis-fly larva. 

Glenn: Why does it 
stay in such a place .^ 

Mother: The caddis- 
worm, or larva, has a soft 
body, which would very 
soon be gobbled up by a 
larva of the dragon-fly 
or some hungry fish; so 
it gathers fine stems of 
plants, bits of stick, tiny 
pieces of bark or wood, 
and builds a house. 
Sometimes it uses coarse 
sand or small pebbles, and 
it will even crawl into an 
empty snail's shell, and 
take up its abode there. 
Harold: It does not 
need a very big house, for 
it can not be an inch long. 
Mother: If you were small enough to enter one of these 
homes, you would find it round inside like a 
tube, and lined with silken curtains, which 
the caddis makes, for it can spin like a cater- 





CADDIS-FLY 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest I19 

pillar; so it is very cozy inside, even though the house is 
under the water. All caddis houses are not built alike, 
but all are round and smooth inside. As the little crea- 
ture grows, it keeps moving toward the front end, and builds 
on a new part, which is larger; then it cuts off the back end of 
the house, which has become too small. 

Glenn: How does it get anything to eat.^ 

Mother: It crawls along the bottom of the stream, taking 
its home with it. Sometimes the house looks as if it were 
moving itself. The head of the caddis and the first three rings 
of its body have a horny covering, which protects it, and it 
reaches outside the door and gets its food. 

Harold: What does it eat.f* 

Mother: Almost anything that comes its way, — leaves or 

,f^v^, _ insects. The caddis does 

a curious thing when ma- 
king its dwelling. If it 
comes to a small snail, it 
glues it to the house and 
HOMES OF CADDIS-FLY LARv^ walks away, whcthcr the 

snail is willing to go or not. Some of the caddis larvae build 
houses that are fastened in one place, and then they spin a 
little net at the front, which catches the insects they use as 
food. Here is a picture of the net. The 
little fisherman selects its building place 
where it can fasten its net to a frame of 
leaves or stones beside a swiftly flowing 
stream. The mouth of the net opens up 
stream, and the water flows through it, as it is made of ma- 
terial which hardens in water, and is woven in the shape of a 
bag. Near the open end is a small passage leading to the 
home of the fisherman, which is fastened to a stone. When it 
is ready for dinner, all it has to do is to go to the net and eat. 





I20 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Iva: This picture looks almost like a pipe. 

Mother: It Is the home of another caddis- 
fly, which makes a mud case with one or two 
small rooms at the bottom, and a tall chimney, 
which rises out of the mud. 
Glenn: What does the caddis-worm do when it turns to 



^ 




pupa : 

Mother: Like other insects, it goes to sleep; but it first 
shuts both the front and back doors, for it has a good many 
close neighbors. The doors are simply gratings of silk, which 
let the water pass through freely. After it has slept for two 
or three weeks, it wakes up and comes out of its house in a 
hurry, swims to some dry place and shakes off its pupa-case. 
As soon as it gets its wings, it has a great liking for the light, 
and large numbers of caddis-flies can 
be found near street lamps. There 
are many kinds of them. Some are 
very small, and may be seen flitting 
about ponds and lakes. Others fly J 
only at night-time and remain quiet 
during the day. 

Hazel: Do they lay their eggs in 
the water? 

Mother: Yes ; the mother fly car- 
ries her eggs about in two bundles 
fastened to her body, probably to keep 
them warm before they are placed in 
the water. Even though she has wings, 
she can swim, and when ready to leave 
her eggs, she crawls down the stem of a 
plant several inches into the water, fastens 
them to the plant, and leaves them there to 
hatch. 




NEAR STREET 
LAMPS " 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



121 




Harold: Does the dragon-fly have other relatives than the 
caddises? 

Mother: Yes, many more. Here come several of them 
now. 

Iva: Why, those are May-flies. 

Glenn: I have sometimes heard them called day-flies. I 
wonder why they have that name. 

Mother: Because they live only one day, often only a few 
hours. They have still another name, eph-em'- 
e-ra, which means the child of an hour. Here 
is a picture of one which you may examine 
closely. You see it has a long, slender body. 

Iva: And also two long tails like silky hairs. 

Mother: When moving its wings, it rises in the air; 

but even though the wings are spread, if they are 

still, it falls, so it is continually rising and falling. 

There are large numbers of them where there is much water. 

Harold: Do they live just one day.^ 

Mother: Only one day as May-flies, but they live as larvae 
two or three years. When ready for wings they come to the 
top of the water and leave their pupa-cases so 
quickly that they seem to fly out of the water. 
On bright, sunshiny days swarms of May-flies 
may be seen dancing in the air. There is only 
one thing for which they stop their flight, and 
that is to lay their eggs. These are placed in the 
water in little bunches, and there may be several 
hundred in one cluster. They soon sink to the 
bottom, where they hatch, and then each little 
youngster hunts for a mud bank, where it lives 
in the same way that its mother did for two 
.. or three years. 




LARVA OF MAY 
FLY 



Iva: What do the May-flies eat, mother? 



122 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Mother: They have no time for eating, and they have no 
mouths to eat with. After dancing about in the air a few hours, 
they go to sleep never to wake. Their dead bodies are some- 
times found in such quantities in some parts of Europe that 
they cover the ground like snow, and are gathered in heaps 
to fertilize the fields. 

The Ant-Lion 

Hazel: Here is the picture of an insect that looks like the 
dragon-fly. 

Another: That is an ant-lion. 

Glenn: Why, it does not look like either an ant or a lion ! 
Mother: This is the picture of the perfect insect, and it 
now looks like a dragon- 
fly; but it looked quite 
different as larva and 
pupa. You would hardly 
think such an elegant in- 
sect, with four pretty lace-like wings, once 
looked like this picture of the larva. 

Iva: It is shaped like my flat-iron; see ^ its hairy legs. 

Mother: Here is a picture of the little cradle it lies in. 

The larva comes from an &g^ which the ant-lion lays in the 

sand. Here is its picture after it turns to pupa. 

Hazel: It looks like a little doll with eyes on the 

sides of its head. 

Mother: The ant-lion lives on land, and is found 
only in warm countries. Its larvae like 
dry, hot sand. They eat ants and other 
insects. It has an odd way of catching its 
prey, and uses more wisdom than one would 
think it capable of. It is short and clumsy, 
moves very slowly, and can only walk 






Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 123 

backward, but it sets a trap in the sand for ants, and they 
tumble into it. It chooses a spot where the sun shines, and 
where a colony of ants have set up housekeeping. It has 
no tools to work with except its strong jaws and head. It 
first plows a furrow by pushing its body backward through the 
sand in the form of a circle two or three inches in diameter. 
Then it makes a deeper furrow by loading sand on its head 
with its fore leg, throws its head up with a jerk, and the 
sand is thrown outside the circle. It works till it gets around 
to where it began, then goes back the other way, and keeps 
hard at work till it has a hole about two inches deep. 

Harold: What if a stone is in its way.^ 

Mother: It puts its head under the stone and pushes it to 
the top and outside the circle. This means hard work, espe- 
cially if the stone is two or three times as large as itself. Some- 
times after tugging a long time, just as it gets the stone to the 
top, it rolls down again. Then it tries again. But after trying 
eight or ten times, it sometimes gives up, and begins to dig an- 
other hole. When the ^f^ _._,_.,_,.,_. ,^,.^_ 

trap is finished, it hides |M| t ' ^- '^^^^^0M^'-r0^^f^ 

in the bottom, covers its ^-^\^ ' . ^^^^M^if''- ^''Xf %v!^l 

body with loose sand, all 

excepting the big jaws, 

which it opens wide, and 

there waits for its prey. ^"^ "^^^^^ ant-lion and its pit or trap 

Here is a picture of a trap; it is shaped like a funnel. 

Harold: A clever trapper, I must say; but I should think it 
would have to wait a long time for its dinner. 

Mother: Not so long as you think. Soon two or three ants 
come along, and one goes near enough to look over the brink, 
sees the wide-open jaws at the bottom, and starts to run away; 
but the slippery sand gives way under its feet, and down it rolls 
into the waiting mandibles. 




1, fy - • 



124 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Glenn: Does the ant-lion eat it when it falls into the trap? 

Mother: No, it only sucks the juice out of its body, tosses 
it out of the funnel with an odd jerk of its head, and then settles 
back to wait for another victim, as a cat -watches for a mouse. 
Now you know why this insect is called the ant-lion. 

Glenn: Nearly all insects seem to hunt for others to eat. 

Mother: Perhaps they are like people who kill ducks, 
turkeys, chickens, cattle, sheep, and the pretty fish. 

Hazel: I wish people would not kill and eat things that 
have life. 

Mother: I wish so, too. In the new earth "the cow and the 
bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and 
the lion shall eat straw like the ox. . . . They shall not 
hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain. " There the people 
will eat luscious fruit instead of the flesh of animals, and I be- 
lieve even the insects will not prey on one another as they do 
now, for the Lord says, "Behold, I make all things new." 

Hazel: As you told us of the ant-lion, mother, I thought of 
the psalm we read this morning, about the wicked man who 
"sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages: in the secret 
places doth he murder the innocent." 

Mother: As the ant-lion waits in secret for its prey, so those 
who sell strong drink lie in wait for those whom they ruin, 
both body and soul. When their victims have no more money, 
they throw them out as the ant-lion does the ant it has robbed 
of life. 

Glenn: Some of the boys asked me to go into the saloon and 
hear the music and see what the men were doing inside. 

Hazel: If you had gone, you would have been like the ant 
who looked down into the trap of the ant-lion. 

Mother: The only safety is in keeping far away from all 
such places; for they are traps set for the innocent, and many, 
many boys and girls are ruined because they can not see the 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 125 

harm in going to see what is being done behind the screen. I 
hope my boys will never forget the counsel of the wisest of 
men: '^ Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in 
the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and 
pass away." 

Harold: Did you say the ant-lion is found in the Southern 
States ? 

Mother: Yes; and your auntie told me she saw ant-lions in 
Australia, and was interested in watching their habits. 

Iva: I wonder if bigger insects than ants ever fall into 
their trap. 

Mother: Sometimes beetles and spiders tumble in, and the 
ant-lion tries to make them its prey. Then there is a fierce 
battle. The larger insects sometimes escape, but may lose 
their balance, or get tired out in their efforts to get away, and 
then they are caught by the sickle-shaped jaws. This shows 
that even the strongest should not go in the way of temptation 
and danger. 

The White Ants 

Iva: Are there any white ants here, mother.^ 
Mother: No; they inhabit tropical countries, such as India, 

Africa, Australia, and 
some parts of North 
and South America, 
and Europe. But what 
we call white ants are 
not ants at all, although 
they look like them. Their 
true name is termites, and 
those who study insects say they belong to the Neu-rop'- 
te-ra family. Do you remember in which family the ants are 
found } 





126 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Harold: In the Hy-men-op'te-ra, with the bees, wasps, and 
hornets. 

Hazel: Do the termites have wings Hke the ants ? 
Mother: The males and females do, but the workers and 
soldiers have four wings the same size, while the wings of the 
ants with whom you have been talking, have one 
pair of wings larger than the other. This and 
the preceding page show pictures of two mem- 
bers of the termite family. They are larger than 
the live insects. One is a picture of the male 
termite before he loses his wings. The other is 
the picture of a worker, which is as big as a 
large ant. They have round heads, short jaws, or man- 
dibles, and they are all blind. 

Hazel: How can they work when they are blind? 
Mother: The termites are miners and masons, and choose 
to live in the dark. They are like the little fishes found in the 
Mammoth Cave; for they have places where eyes should be, 
but they do not grow. 

Harold: Do they lose their wings like the ants 1 
Mother: Yes; after they take their wedding trip; and great 
numbers of them die. One afternoon toward evening, in Aus- 
tralia, Aunt Jennie saw the air filled with white insects, which 
made it appear as though there was a snow-storm. They flew 
and then fell to the ground. When she examined them, she 
found they were termites. 

Iva: What do they do after their flying journey? 
Mother: Those that remain lose their wings after finding 
their mates, and become kings and queens of new homes. 
These have eyes and can see. The worker termites care for 
them, and provide shelter and food for the family. They have 
grayish-white bodies, and jaws strong enough to bite almost 
anything. 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 127 

Glenn: Did you say some of the termites act as soldiers? 

Mother: Yes; and very brave ones they are, too. Here is 
a picture of one. They have heads nearly as large as their 
bodies. Strange to say, the soldiers are as blind 
as the workers, though it is their business to de- 
fend the termite home from all kinds of enemies. 

Hazel: Would they fight a man ? 

Mother: They surely would, as many have found 
to their sorrow. If a blow is struck on their nest, 
they run out quickly. It does not take them long soldier ter- 
to find the enemy, and they bite and pinch his flesh ^"^ 

till they bring the blood. With their sharp pinchers they 
hang to the wound, and will permit themselves to be torn in 
pieces before they will let go. 

Hazel: What savage creatures they must be! 

Mother: They are. While they are fighting, they strike 
the ground and make a slight sound, which is heard by 
the workers below, who answer with a little whistle which 
means, ^^Here we come;" and they soon appear, each carrying 
a load of mortar to mend any damage done to their home. 
When the battle is over, most of the soldiers go back into the 
nest, but a few remain outside to see that the work is well done. 
They keep striking the ground as they did during the battle, 
which makes the working termites work faster, till all needed 
repairs are finished. A gentleman saw Negroes attack the 
ant-hills in Guiana. They did not dare to go near them with- 
out first digging a little ditch and filling it with water. They 
would then shoot at the nest. When the ants rushed out, they 
were drowned in the ditch. 

Hazel: Why did they attack the nests .^ 
Mother: The termites store corn in their homes, which the 
natives take away; and they also eat the ants themselves, and 
think them a choice food. They roast them like coffee, and 



128 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



can never get enough. They also mix them with flour and 
make a kind of cake. Travelers who have eaten it say it 
tastes like sugar and cream. 

Hazel: Do the termites make homes like the ants, 
mother ? 

Mother: Yes, very large ones. You would scarcely think 
this feeble-looking insect could build a dwelling so large. Mr. 
Smeathman, who spent a long time in Africa, saw them ten or 
twelve feet high; another traveler saw them twenty or thirty 
feet high. Aunt Jennie saw some in Australia that were 
higher than a man. They appear like hillocks or great rocks. 

Harold: I should like to 
tear one down and see how 
it looks inside. 

Mother: You might find 

it harder to tear down than 

you think; for they build 

their walls so that they are 

almost as hard as stone. 

Glenn: What do they 

use in building.^ 

Mother: Clay, or 
earth, which is worked 
into a kind of mortar; 
when it is placed in the 
walls, it becomes so 
hard that it will bear a 
great weight. Any num- 
ber of men that can 
stand on one could not shake 
it down. Sometimes buffaloes 
have been seen standing on 
them, using them as a watch- 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



129 



tower from which to see if a lion or panther was near. 

Hazel: Such nests must be solid clear through. 

Mother: No, they are hollow, the wall being about fifteen 
or twenty inches thick. The picture on the preceding page, 
showing the inside of the nest, will help you to understand 
it better. In the top is a large empty room, which takes about 
one third of the space inside. It is left vacant, probably to 
keep the dwelling cool. In the inside of the dome, and even 
under it, are many rooms and galleries, both large and small. 
In the sides of the dome near the wall are large storerooms, in 
which are stored gums and juices of plants dried and made into 
powder, which the termites use as food. On the first floor is 
the queen's apartment. 

Hazel: Do the termites always make their nests in the 
ground t 

Mother: No; there are some kinds which make them" 
in trees. This picture was drawn from a 
specimen in the Smithsonian Institution at 
Washington, D. C. Some of these nests are 
of great size. The termites that build in 
trees make covered roadways, or tunnels, 
through which they travel to the ground. 
Some nests are made of bits of wood stuck 
together with a kind of gum. All these 
nests are so firmly fastened to the trees in 
which they are built that they can not be 
shaken down even by severe storms. The 
termites sometimes choose to build their 
homes in the roof of a house, where they do 
great harm, and in Africa, near the equator, they make nests 
like big brown toadstools, only they have four tops like um- 
brellas, instead of one. 

Iva: How does their queen look.^ 
9 




TERMITE 

TREE NEST ^^^■' 



I30 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




TERMITE QUEEN 



Mother: Here is her picture, so you may see for yourself. 
Harold: She doesn't look at all like the other termites. 

In appearance she is very 
much like a potato. 

Mother: Aunt Jen- 
nie saw one of the 
queens in a museum 
in England, and 
thought her the ugli- 
est-looking insect she ever saw. She sometimes weighs as 
much as thirty thousand workers, and is six inches long, but 
most queens are about the size of my thumb. The younger 
queens are much smaller. The larger the queen, the more 
she is admired by the family who live in the house with her. 
Iva: Does she lay as many eggs as the queen bee, mother.^ 
Mother: A great many more; in fact, that is her business. 
She lays sixty eggs a minute. 

Iva: That is one every second, and three thousand six 
hundred an hour, making over eighty thousand a day. 

Mother: Mr. Smeathman thinks she lays eggs during the 
whole year, so you can figure out how many millions that w^ould 
be. The eggs look like tiny black beads. 
Iva: Is the king as large as the queen .^ 
Mother: He is only about an inch long. 
Hazel: Can the queen walk.^ 

Mother: She is kept captive in her cell, which is shaped like 
the one in the picture. The doors are so small to this apart- 
ment that she can not get through them, and so does not move 
at all. The workers take great care lest any harm come to 
her, and supply her with all the food she needs. 

Glenn: Do the workers care for the eggs as ants and 
bees do.^ 

Mother: Yes; they carry them to rooms prepared to re- 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



131 



:eive them, which are above the royal cell. These rooms are 
small, and divided by partitions of sawdust glued together 
with gum. 

Harold: I should think termites would produce eggs enough 
to cover the world, and cause all other insects to perish. 

Mother: They have many enemies. Birds are greedy to 
swallow them; ants eat thousands of them; even the natives 
kill them for food; and in tropical countries ant-eaters devour 
quantities of termites. Here is a picture of an ant-eater. 

This is called the ant-bear. 
Its long, pointed nose, which 
looks like the beak of a bird, 
is very useful to it. None of 
the ant-eaters have teeth, 
but they have long, sticky 
tongues, which they run 
. into the hole where the 
\ll \^\\ iliJ '«^A\WiLr'',iP^^^^"o. r-^^^^mj'-,*^ ants are, and the ants stick 
m\mW^^7*t' to their tongues. As soon 
ANT-BEAR as the tongue is covered 

with ants, it is quickly taken into the mouth, and is soon 
ready for another supply. Its head is about a foot long and 
very narrow. The ant-bear cleans its little mouth and face 
by rubbing them on its knee-joint, which bends for that 
purpose. 

Iva: Why does it have such a long, bushy tail.^ 
Mother: It shields it from the sun and rain. The ant-bear 
is fond of lying down, and when doing so uses its tail as a 
blanket, for it reaches over the whole body. It has a keen 
sense of smell, and can follow a person as a dog does a rab- 
bit. It destroys millions of termites, as do also the ipi, or 
pangolin, in Africa, and the armadillo in Central America. 
When pursued, the armadillo will roll itself up into a ball and 




132 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




THE ARMADILLO 



"play possum. " It is sometimes 

tamed and kept by people in 

cities and also in the country, to 

free their homes from ants. 

Harold: Please tell us how the 

termites do harm, mother. 

Mother: They bore tunnels in 
timber, and if people are using 
the wood in which they choose to work, you can see they 
do much mischief. Some think they eat the wood for food, 
and if that is true, they have good appetites, for they 
never seem satisfied. They do their work in a strange way, 
eating only the inside of wood or trees. Chairs, tables, and 
other furniture may seem to be all right; but if one sits down 
in a chair in which the termites have been working, he may 
soon find himself on the floor; or the table may break down 
under the weight of the dinner placed upon it. 
Glenn: Why don't they eat the outside, too.^ 
Mother: The termites are blind, and they choose to work In 
the dark. If compelled to come into the light, they build 
covered roadways through which to pass. These tunnels are 
seen on trees and on the foundations of houses in Australia. 
Wherever the termites live, these tunnels are found stuck on 
walls, or hanging from roofs like icicles. 

Harold: It must take them a long time to bore through 
solid wood. 

Mother: They have been known to 
tunnel a table leg from bottom to top, 
and then go through the top of the table, 
down through the leg on the other side, 
in one night, and during the same time 
they ate what was in a trunk placed on 
the table. Auntie went to a church in 




WOOD EATEN BY TERMITES 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



133 



Sydney, Australia, where the floors and partitions had been 
eaten away, leaving only the outside shell of the boards. A 
man near where she lived found that the termites had eaten 
through the wooden mantel around his fireplace, leaving only 
the outside. After eating the timbers of a house, they some- 
times fill the tunnels they have made with mortar to keep the 
house from tumbling down. But they do this only when they 
intend staying in the place a long time. 

Harold: Do they eat anything except wood, mother? 
Mother: One might say they eat everything. 
Here is a picture of a book eaten by 




BOOK EATEN BY TERMITES 
IN ONE NIGHT 



termites, showing how it looked when the covers were 
opened. There are big holes two inches deep through the 
leaves. I saw this book in the Smithsonian Institution in 
Washington, D. C. The picture of the piece of wood found 
in the same place, shows how close together they bore their 



134 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




tunnels. In the South Kensington Museum in London, there 
is a box Hd only one eighth of an inch thick, which has been 
hollowed out, leaving an outside shell as thin as paper. Your 
Uncle Harry, who is a missionary in Africa, asked me to send 
him some maps; but he says they must be made so they can 
be taken down and folded away every day, so the termites 
will not get a chance to eat them. 

Hazel: How difficult it must be to live in countries where 
there are so many harmful insects! 

Glenn: I would keep two or three ant-bears near the house. 
Mother: In an arsenal in France the termites bored 
through the woodwork, pierced the cardboard cov- 
ers, and ate the public records kept there. They 
left only the covers, and the edges of the leaves. In 
the South Kensington Museum there is a piece of 
sheet lead one eighth of an inch thick filled with holes 
bored by the termites. This is a 
picture of it. There one can also see 
a piece of sandstone brought from 
Sydney, Australia, filled with 
tunnels these little creatures 
have made. 

Glenn: They must have teeth 
of iron. 

Mother: Here is a picture of 
a piece of timber taken from an 
office on the island of St. He- 
lena. The knobs standing out are knots in the wood; 
they were not touched. The wood was eaten away 
its entire length, so it would be about as strong 
as a sheet of brown paper to support a building. 
Iva: I should think the houses would fall down 
where the termites work that way. 



LEAD EATEN BY TERMITES 



TIMBER 

FROM 

ST. HELENA 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 135 

Mother: They do. In France, at a public dinner, the floor 
of the dining-room gave way, and the host and all his guests 
tumbled in a heap into the cellar. In the Museum of Natural 
History in Paris, the timbers that supported the floor of that 
room may be seen. The termites are a great pest, yet we may 
be like them in industry and perseverance. 

The Spider 

Harold: To what family of insects do you belong, Mrs. 
Spider.^ 

Spider: I am not an insect at all. Look at my picture, 
and see if there is any difi'erence between it and this picture 
of a bee. 

Harold: You have eight legs, while the bee and all true in- 
sects have only six; and you have no 
wings, while insects have two or more; 
and there are only two parts to your 
body, while most in- 
sects have three. 
Your head and the 
fore part of your body 
seem to be one. 

Glenn: Do you lay 
eggs.^ and do they hatch as larvae and change to pupae .^ 
Spider: We lay eggs, but when they hatch, little spiders 
come out of them. These we carry and care for until they 
are able to provide for themselves. 

Iva: Do you have a sting like the bee and the wasp } 
Spider: I bite instead of sting; but my bite will not hurt 
anything except a fly or some other insect. 

Glenn: Do you have hundreds of eyes, as some Insects do.^ 
Spider: I have only eight, but they are so placed In the dif- 
ferent parts of my head that I can see in all directions at once. 





136 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

A few spiders have six eyes, and a still smaller number have 
only two. 

Hazel: Are you different from insects in other ways? 

Spider: My body is soft, and has no hard, horny covering, 
such as most insects have. I shed my skin as I grow older 
and larger, while most insects do not. I am able to run if I 
lose half of my legs. If I lose a leg, a new one grows out in 
its place. 

Harold: Are there many kinds of spiders.^ 

Spider: Hundreds. They are classihed into five principal 
families, according to their habits, and there may be many dif- 
ferent kinds in one family. All belong in one general class 
called A-rach'ni-da. 

Hazel: What are your family names .^ 

Spider: First, hunting-spiders, which run about hunting 
their prey; second, wandering spiders, so called because they 
have no homes; third, prowling spiders, w^hich run about 
near their webs to hunt for food; fourth, sedentary spiders, 
sedentary meaning to sit much of the time, or to settle in one 
place; fifth, water-spiders, which are also sedentary, but live 
m water instead of on land. We can all dive in the water, and 
some of my cousins can build rafts. We hunt, and plant 
mosses and ferns, and are famous spinners and weavers. We 
make bridges, balloons, and parachutes. One of my cousins 
makes a house lined with the finest silk curtains, and has a 
door fastened in place with a hinge. Another makes a tent to 
live in; one builds a tower, while another spins silk which is 
woven into beautiful dresses and ribbons. We have opened 
prison doors, too, and we are weather prophets. 

Harold: I think Solomon watched spiders in his palace; 
for he said, " The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is 
in kings' palaces." 

Hazel: How do you make your web? 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 137 

Spider: We have no spinning-wheels such as your grand- 
mother used, and yet all spiders can spin. On the under side 
of my body there are six tubes called spinnerets, and in each 
tube there are many smaller ones. Some people say there are 
a thousand. 

Iva: Do you spin wool, cotton, or flax? 

Spider: None of them. There is a kind of gum or glue in 
my body which comes through the tiny tubes in the spinnerets, 
and it makes the finest threads you ever saw. 
They look like the threads that come from a 
spoon dipped in boiling sirup. As they come 
from my body, they become hard and strong, 
and I wxave them into webs and nets. I can 
spin six strands atone time; and if I wish to spinnerets 
make a strong cable I simply twist the strands ^ together. 

Harold: If there are so many tubes in the spinnerets, I 
should think there would be hundreds of threads instead of one. 

Spider: I bend my spinnerets together so the threads 
twist into one, just as there are many strands in a rope. 
Think how fine each strand must be when hundreds of them 
twisted together make a line no coarser than a hair. 

Hazel: The silk must be strong, since it holds you up. 

Spider: I am not afraid of falling. Watch while I spin a 
long thread. 

Harold: You go so fast. Go slowly please, and show us 
how you make those webs that look like a wheel. 

Spider: First I press my spinneret on the place where I 
wish to begin, and that fastens the end of the line. Then I 
drop down, spinning a thread as I go, to reach some other place 
that will make a good foundation. I can begin or stop spin- 
ning whenever I choose. 

Hazel: How do you fasten your line at the other end.^ 

Spider: I take the thread in my hand and walk around to 



138 Friends -and Foes in Field and Forest 

the point I wish to reach,' spinning as I go. A good strong pull 
straightens the line; I make it fast, and then walk back over 
my suspension-bridge to the place where I began. I fasten 
another line, and go back and forth, spinning a thread each 
time to strengthen the cable. Sometimes a branch serves as 
a foundation for the web, or I fasten it between two bushes. 

Iva: I should like to know how you make it look like a 
wheel. 

Spider: I spin the rays — the strands that look like the 
spokes of a wheel — first. I give every ray a strong pull to 
make it straight, and then spin the threads round and round 
from ray to ray, beginning at the outside, until it is a perfect, 
beautiful wheel. The inside lines are closer together than 
those on the outside. When all is done, I can sit in the center. 
I have a cozy little parlor close by lined with silk curtains, 
where I sit with a line in my hand which runs from the web. 
This is my telephone. When a caller comes and shakes the 
web, I feel it moving and quickly go to see who is there. Even 
though Mrs. Fly should say with her very loudest buzz that she 
did not mean to intrude, that she came to my door by mistake, 
and that she will go away without making me any trouble 
at all, still she stays; for I quickly spin several cords 
around her body, and keep her there a prisoner 
until I feel hungry. 

Harold: I have watched spiders climbing 
up the lines they have spun, and yet there 
were none left hanging. 

Spider: That is because we roll our 

thread into a ball as we climb, and 

carry it along. Perhaps you have 

seen us, when we thought it 

safe, go down again, and it 

seemed as though we made 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 139 

big jumps, and still the line held us up. We go more slowly 
and steadily when we are spinning. 

Hazel: How is it, Mrs. Spider, that you can run over your 
web as easily as can be, but if a fly touches it, she gets all 
tangled up and can not get out.^ 

Spider: One reason is we use two kinds of silk in making 
our webs. That which makes the spokes of the wheel is 
smooth, while the lines that cross them are covered with tiny 
drops of a sticky glue that will not get dry. It is said that 
there are about two hundred drops to every inch of line, and 
that in a whole web there are ninety thousand drops. They 
can not be seen unless one looks through a strong glass. 

Harold: Why don't your feet stick like those of the fly.^ 

Spider: Because they are made differently. Our feet have 

claws like those on a lion's foot. One claw is bent like a hook, 

so we can cling to the web and walk as easily as 

you can on a floor. The other 

two claws have combs, which we 

use to comb our hair and to clean 

our webs. A fly's foot has gummy 

cushions, and these stick to the 

SPIDER'S FOOT ^^^^ ^g ^^^^ ^5 ^J^^y. ^^^^J^ J^^ 

Glenn: I have seen webs in the grass which looked like 
lace when the dew was on them. 

Spider: They are closely woven, and down at one side you 
will And the little spider who makes such a web waiting for her 
breakfast. She has a little chimney at one side, only it goes 
down instead of up. If she hears a fly buzzing that has been 
caught in her lacy web, she is all ready to tie its legs and wings 
and carry it away in a neat bundle; but if a blundering beetle 
comes tumbling down, she runs out at the other end of 
her chimney into the grass, where she is safe. 

Harold: Which kind of spider makes the largest web? 





FLY S FOOT 



The Spider's Oration 

Come, children, who fancy we spiders are fools ^ 
And view the lace houses we build without tools. 
Tm just about finishing one at the lattice; 
Come qtcick, and Fll operate for you all gratis. 
And where do you think are my shuttle and loom? 
You see no machinery here in the room, 
No silk thread nor cotton, and yet you all see 
This wonderful fabric is woven by me. 

It's all in my little round abdomen here; 

No steam apparatus to burst, never fear. 

It's hard to explain to you just how I do it; 

Look sharp, and perhaps your bright eyes will see through it. 

What would a fine lady not give to possess 

A spider-web drapery o'er a silk dress? 

The weaver, if human, would win a great name. 

While artisan spiders no m,erit may claim 

For the unobtrusive and wise. 

We try to relieve you of troublesome flies; 

We re hunted and scouted with duster and broom, j 

And all our fine tapestry swept from the room. | 

When questions, "What were spiders made for?'' arise, 
Some wiseacre answers, " They're made to catch flies." 
"And what were flies made for?" He answers again, 
" To feed hungry spiders; Tm sure this is plain." 
Now this is chop logic, or reason in rings. 
Observe how I amputate this beetle's wings. 
There! done like an M. D., with minus a tool. 
Now, have I not proved you a spider's no fool? 

I've shown him a weaver, the best in the nation^ 
An architect planning his own habitation, 
A maker of nets to catch flshes with wings, 
A surgeon accomplishing wonderful things, 
A skilled decorator of mansion and cot, 
A plain, honest worker, content with his lot; 
And last, you'll admit, little children, I know it, 
I've proved him an orator, scholar, and poet. 

— Mrs. Mary N. VanDyck. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 141 

Spider: My cousin Neph'i-la is the largest web-spinning 
spider. She lives only in very warm countries. Her webs 
are several feet across, and are made of silk so strong that even 
birds are snared in them. Nephila chooses grasshoppers and 
other large insects as her food. Her body is very large. Her 
mate is so small that it is like a man six feet high having a wife 
seventy-five feet tall. But he is so spry that he quickly gets 
out of the way if his big mate is inclined to be quarrelsome, and 
he knows his life depends on his doing so. When travelers 
go through the forests, they are obliged to use knives to cut 
away the big webs which stretch across their path. Nephila 
has a smooth body, and her legs are sometimes six inches long. 

Glenn: How many spiders live in one web? 

Spider: Only two old ones. Here is the picture of one of 
my cousins and her 
mate. He is much 
smaller than she, 
and he lets her make 
the house, get the 
meals, care for the 
spider babies, and 
do all the other 
work there is to do. ^^^°^^ ^^'""^^^ 

Hazel: Are spiders neat and tidy in their housekeeping .f* 

Spider: I want no dirt nor soot in my house, and if anything 
falls on it, I shake the web until it falls out. If I can not get 
it out, I cut a piece away, and mend it with new lines. 

Glenn: The smallest webs I ever saw are those in the cor- 
ners of fence palings and of the house. 

Spider: If you look closely, you will sometimes see the 
little spiders who live in them jump to catch a gnat or some 
such insect. As they jump, they spin a little line by which 
they climb back home, bringing their dinner with them. Spi- 





142 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




Whenever I see 

On bush or tree 

A great big spider-web, 

I say with a shout, 
" Little fly, look out! 
That web seems so pretty and white. 
But a spider hides there, and is ready to bite," 

So if any one here 

Drinks cider or beer, 

I say to him now. 

With my very best bow, 
" Have a care of that lager or cider. 

For there hides a wicked old spider. 

And it fills him with joy 

To catch man or boy 
And weave all about him with terrible might 
The meshes of habit— the rum appetite." 

Se/ected 



,J|lip-|. 



•SALOON 



'j^' "'ii'""r][^'"'i'"i '^K:.M;^iua.4-qM.niv.M;i,i' iT. Mir .'i ' ' , , y, i|| i,'i M,,y , , „ | ,mi,ii -- | "" ii " i ir 



^^ 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 143 

der hammocks are made by Cousin Li-nyph'i-a. She hangs 
them between two tall grass stems. One of her relatives makes 
two hammock webs, one under the other, and then stands 
under them to catch the insects that fall through. 

Hazel: Do baby spiders make webs, too.^ 

Spider: Some do. In Jamaica Cousin Ep-ei'ra's children 
have been seen making webs the size of a penny when they were 
seven weeks old. Their mother uses eighty yards of silken 
cord in making hers; it has been measured. 

Harold: Sometimes when I look toward the sky I see so 
many silken lines it seems as if the air is full of them. 

Spider: The finest webs float away in the air. There is a 
little black spider that goes up high to make her 
web, then gets on it, cuts the cords, and comes 
down to earth in her parachute. There is a 
spider In Texas that weaves a balloon two feet 
wide and six feet long, and hangs it by a single \f ^ % 
thread to a tree. When all is ready for flight, 
she and her children get into the balloon. With ^^^^^^'^ J-^^s 
her sharp jaws she cuts the cable that fastens it to the tree, 
and sails away over the prairie in her air-ship. 

Harold: Perhaps men will learn from spiders how to make 
air-ships as well as divingbells. 

MISS SPIDER'S WEDDING BREAKFAST 

A fat little spider married would be. 
So he made him a rope and climbed a tree 
To where Miss Spider was making a pie 
Of a bumblebee and a small house-fly. 

And she wed him there in the morning light, 
When the dew on the grass was round- and bright. 
Then spread out her table so lacy and fine, 
And off from her husband began to dine. 




144 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



She ate him all, from his head to his heel, 
And never a pang of remorse did feel, 
But, as curled up close in her cozy bed, 
* That spider was tough," to herself she said. 

— Selected, 



Spider: What would you think of trying to untwist one 
of my threads ? In Australia our silken lines are used in the 
Melbourne Observatory. But the lines are too coarse as they 
are, so they take the silk spun by a spider that has few spinner- 
ets, and divide it to place across the big telescope in squares 
so the astronomers can get lines just the right size. A Mr. 
Froude says he saw spiders which were kept so their webs might 
be at hand to be used when wanted. 

Harold: Dr. Wilder, of Boston, Massachusetts, found a 
spider in South Carolina from which he wound a line of silk 
two miles long. Some persons think spiders could be reared 
and their silk woven like that of the silkworm. 

Spider: I have a cousin in Madagascar who spins beautiful 
silk. She is very large, and is a cannibal. Her name is 
Halibe. She is very different from me. I am told that her 
mate leads a sorry life. Even when he tries his best to please 
her, she is apt to pounce on him and eat him 
for her breakfast. As she has such a bad 
temper, it is uncertain whether she can be 
made to spin enough silk to pay or not. She 
lives on the mango-tree, and the native 
girls catch her and her sisters and put 
them in baskets, but if left long together 
they eat one another, so only a few are left. 
Harold: Do they spin much silk.^ 
Spider: Twelve thousand five hundred yards 
of silk of the finest quality have been spun by 
one spider in a month. The spiders are placed 




HALIBE, THE 

SILK-SPIN- 
NING SPIDER 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 145 

in box frames, each fastened in by itself, so they can not get 
away. Then the native girls draw the silk from the spiders' 
bodies and wind it on reels. 

Lva: Is the silk pretty? 

Spider: It is the purest yellow, and as brilliant as gold. 
It is much finer than common silk, and yet so strong that it 
can be woven into fabrics that will wear for ages. The bodies 
of these spiders seem to be filled with liquid silk. At an ex- 
position held in Paris some bed hangings made from this 
wonderful silk were shown. Schools have been started in 
Madagascar, where many natives are employed to care for 
spiders. 

Glenn: Please tell us about the spider that wears shoes. 

Spider: She uses them only when she walks on the water. 
I keep away from water, but she is never happier than when 
darting about on the smooth surface of some pond or stream, 
as you glide over the ice in winter on your skates. Her shoes 
are tiny bags of air like a toy balloon. She wears them so she 
will not sink as she scuds through the water. While you are 
waiting for the water to freeze, she is skating about on her air 
slippers. You will see her some fine summer day. 

Glenn: She must have four pairs of slippers to wear at 
once. I think father and mother are glad we do not have 
so many feet. 

Harold: What about the spider that makes a raft.^ 

Spider: It lives on the water, too. It takes twigs and grass 
and ties them together with its silk. On this raft it rides to 
hunt for a fly for its dinner. If it sees danger near, it hides 
under its raft. 

Hazel: Do not some spiders live in the water? 

Spider: Cousin Water-spider leads a strange life. She 
breathes air as I do, and yet lives in water. She is covered 
with hairs, which catch and hold the air^ and she filU her body 



146 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

with it; then she takes a bubble between her hind feet, and 
down she goes to her celL 

Harold: What kind of cell? 

Spider: She spins one of silk shaped like a cup turned up- 
side down. The open end is toward the ground. When she 
carries air into the cell, the ^^•ater is forced out, and she keeps 
carrying down air till her house is dry. The silk is woven so 
closely together that the cell is water-tight, and it shines like 
silver. She spins strong lines which fasten her home to a lily 
stem or some water-plant. She often lays her eggs on the stem 
of the plant, and then builds her house near by. Her eggs are 
a golden color, and are said to be very pretty. 

Harold: Her cell reminds me of the divingbell used to re- 
cover things lost in the water. 

Spider: I think men studied the habits of the water-spider 
and got their idea of the divingbell from her. Sometimes she 
is called the fresh-water siren. 

Hazel: Here is a little poem I learned about her: — 

''On light sprays hung, 
By silk cords slung, 

O'erarched by a silken dome, 
Is the airy hall 
With the water-proof wall 

Where the siren makes her home. 

''By a waving screen 
Of emerald green 

Her bower is girt about; * 
But a lucent gleam 
From the sparkling stream 

Looks in from the world without. 



u 



For a river-sprite. 
Or a Naiad bright, 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 147 

'Twas iit for a fairy queen; 

Nay, that pendent cell 

Might have suited well 
For the boudoir of sweet Undine." 

Spider: She carries her eggs about wrapped in a white 
blanket of the softest silk. Sometimes she weaves a tiny cradle 
the shape of an t'gg or a vase, and hangs it in some safe place 
till the little spiders come out in the spring. Then they are 
quite able to hunt and spin and care for themselves if they 
have half a chance. 

Glenn: I read that in southern Europe there is a spider 
that makes her cradle the shape of a balloon upside down, 
about half an inch long. It has a little door or cover that can 
be opened; but the mother spider shuts it up tight before leav- 
ing it. She hangs the cradle on a bush and leaves it there all 
winter. Before she leaves, she makes another case outside 
the one in which the eggs are, and spins silk enough to pack the 
space between the two cases full, so the cradle is warm and 
cozy inside. 

Spider: Many mother spiders keep their little ones with 
them all the time, and feed and care for them. While you think 
us cruel because we kill flies and other insects, yet we love our 
children dearly. When people try to take away the little 
cradle in which we carry our eggs, we hold to it with all our 
might, and will not give it up. When the eggs hatch, the 
mother spider helps her babies out, feeds them, and tends them 
as a hen does her chickens. The little ones even climb on her 
back and ride as you have seen little chickens do. As many 
as two thousand eggs have been found in one spider cradle. 
So you see the mother has a large family to care for. Some- 
times so many climb on her back that her own body can not 
be seen. 



148 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

BRIDGE-BUILDING SPIDERS 

Hazel: How do spiders build bridges? 

Spider: They climb into trees near the stream they wish 
to bridge, and spin a long line, which floats out on the breeze 
till It is caught by some object on the other side. Then Mrs. 
Spider walks over. 

Harold: I wonder what a spider would do if it were placed 
on a pole In the middle of a stream or pond. 

Spider: It has been tried. She flrst spun a web several 
inches long and clung to one end, while the other was allowed 
to float in the wind. I suppose she hoped the web would strike 
some object, but that plan was a failure. So she waited until 
the wind changed, and then spun another web like the first, 
to float away in the opposite direction. She tried again and 
again until she had sent out a line in every direction. Then 
she went to the top of the pole and spun a little balloon. When 
it was finished, she fastened it securely to the pole upon which 
she was a prisoner, and tested it to see whether it was strong 
enough to carry her away. Then she took it all apart, and 
made one which was larger and better. This she did three 
times. When sure that her balloon was all right, she cut the 
cord that held it to the pole, and sailed away to land. 

Harold: Hurrah for Mrs. Spider! Now I believe the story 
of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, who was lying weary and sad 
in a small house. His army had been scattered by a stronger 
one, and he thought he might as well give up. Then he noticed 
a spider trying to fasten her line to the wall near by. As the 
king watched, she tried again and again, failing every time. 
But she persevered, and at last the line was fastened in place. 
The king said if a little spider would not give up when it met 
so many difficulties, surely he, a big man, could do his work 
even though he had failed once or twice. He was so en- 
couraged by the example of the spider that he won the victory. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 149 

Hazel: I have heard that spiders tell what the weather Is 
going to be. 

Spider: A French general named Disvourjal had been in 
prison eight years. Spiders came into his cell and made their 
webs there, and the general watched them and studied their 
habits. He noticed that when fine weather was coming, they 
spun a long thread. If it was going to be stormy, they spun 
short ones. By close watching the general was able to tell 
when a storm was coming two weeks before it came. The 
French army came to Holland where General Disvourjal was 
imprisoned; but the ice and snow began to melt, so the army 
was in great danger, and those in command planned to leave 
the country. The general in his cell heard of their plans, and 
watched the spiders with great interest. He contrived to send 
a letter to the commander of the forces, in which he wrote, 
"I pledge my honor that within fourteen days a severe frost 
will come, which will make you master of the rivers and canals, 
and enable you to conquer the country." So the spiders were 
the means of opening his prison doors, and he was set at liberty. 
This may teach you to store up all kinds of useful knowledge, 
for som.etime you may be able to use it in a way that you do 
not think. 

THE TRAP-DOOR SPIDER 

Spider: Cousin Ta-ran'tu-la, sometimes called the trap-door 
spider. Is very large. Her body Is about the size of a pigeon's 
tgg, and is covered with hair; and she has long, hairy legs, so 
long that she would cover a large plate if placed upon it. She 
is found in warm countries, as southern Europe, the West 
Indies, South America, Australia, and in some of the Southern 
States. She is sometimes called Myg'a-le. 

Hazel: Are they all as large as this one ? 

Spider: No, many of them are much smaller. They are 



ISO 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




TARANTULA 



brown or black, and 
furry. They are also 
called wolf-spiders, be- 
cause they hunt their 
prey and pounce upon it, 
instead of weaving a trap 
and waiting to catch it, 
as we do. Mrs. Mygale 
digs a round hole in the 
ground about an inch 
across and several inches 
deep, and lines it with silken curtains which she spins. 
After that she digs deeper, and again weaves silk to cover the 
walls. She makes two sets of curtains. The one next to the 
ground is of coarse brown silk. The inside curtain is woven 
of the whitest, softest silk. These curtains may be seen in 
museums. 

Glenn: How deep into the ground does Mrs. Mygale dig.'* 
Spider: One or two feet. Sometimes the hole is slanting, 
at other times it slants only a little way, and then goes straight 
down. She keeps hard at work, and never stops to rest until 
it is finished. After the house is all done, and the walls covered 
with silken curtains, she makes a door that fits the burrow just 
as a cork fits a bottle. It is made of silk and earth like the 
house itself. She first spins a thick round web, and fastens it 
at one side by silken threads. 

Harold: That must be the hinge. 

Spider: Yes. She chooses a sloping bank on which to make 
her house, and puts the hinge at the highest point, so the door 
will fall down and close itself. If she wishes it to stand open, 
she spins a few threads and fastens it open, and at times when 
she is not leaving home, she spins a lace curtain over the open 
door, in which some heedless insect is sure to get caught. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



151 



Harold: I should not think the door would be very strong 
if made only of silk. 

Spider: That is only a part of it. After Mrs. Mygale spins 
the first, or inner, lining, she covers it with sand 
stuck together with glue. Then she spins more 
silk, puts on another layer of sand, and finally a 
top covering of earth, on which she places mosses 
and such small plants as grow near. When it is 
finished, it is as solid as a box lid or a trap-door. 

Hazel: Her garden must be small if it is only 
as large as her door. 

Spider: You would not expect a spider to make a large 
garden. She has been known to weave pieces of red braid 
and other fancy materials into her door. If it gets broken, she 
mends it. Outside it looks so much like the ground that one 
would not suspect there was an underground house, and a 
family living comfortably in it. Sometimes Mrs. Mygale 
makes her house with two trap-doors instead of one, the second 




being placed 
in the burrow, 
house, and if 




THE TRAP-DOOR 
SPIDER 



three or four inches down 
This makes a hall to her 
an unwelcome visitor 
comes through the front 
door, she can close the 
inner door and her vis- 
itor is left in an empty 
room. Sometimes she 
makes another burrow 
close to the first, and an 
opening into it. 

Glenn: Does she hang 
a door between the two? 

Spider: Yes; so if an 
intruder comes throu2:h 



1^2 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

both the other doors, she has still another room where she 
can go and feel quite safe. She goes out to hunt her food at 
night. When all ready to start, she cautiously raises her trap- 
door and peeps out to see that no danger is near. 

Hazel: Does she keep her underground house as clean as 
you keep your web t 

Spider: I think so. She eats her meals inside, and throws 
the scraps out at the door, and afterward carries them away. 
A gentleman once placed a beetle by her door. The spider 
took it inside, but soon threw it out again, for it was not the 
kind of food she liked. Then he put another insect w^here 
she could reach it, and she ate that. If she hears anybody 
near, she speeds to the door, shuts it tight, hooks her hind legs 
into its lining, and her fore legs into the wall, and hangs on 
with all her might. Of course such giants as you are would 
have no difficulty in opening the door, but I think most insects 
would find it hard to do. 

Harold: I should think she would smother in the tunnel. 

Spider: There is a row of tiny holes around the outside 
edge of the trap-door, and another row just inside the top of 
the tube, to admit light and air. 

Hazel: Does the whole family of mygales live in one house. f* 

Spider: Mr. Mygale is left to look after himself mostly, 
and whether he builds a house I can not say. Mrs. Mygale 
places her eggs in the lowest room, and cares for the young 
spiders. She keeps them und^r her body at first, much as a 
hen does her chickens. If they try to run away, she pats them 
back with one of her legs. 

Iva: Do the babies make houses with trap-doors? 

Spider: Yes, they know how when very young, and make 
tiny tubes finished with little trap-doors less than a quarter of 
an inch across. The tarantulas, mygales, mason-spiders, and 
mining-spiders all make their homes in the ground. Quite a 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



IS3 



number of each family live near together. They are very 
often found in the nests of termites. There is a spider that 
builds a hollow tower shaped like a bird's nest. It is made of 
little stones, grass, sticks, and leaves bound together with bands 
of silk. This takes the place of the trap-door, and is used to 
hide and protect the tube, which is twelve, fifteen, or more 
inches deep. 

Hazel: I read of a spider that makes a roof of leaves lined 
with web, leaving only a very small opening. At some sea- 
sons the door is closed to protect those living in the burrow 
from a wasp which comes to sting them, and take them away 
as food for its young. The wasp rushes about peering into 
every hole and crevice, and if the spider neglects to fasten its 
door, the wasp soon makes it helpless and carries it away. 

Iva: What kind of building is this one? 

Spider: It is a 
yU') ^ ¥^L-z-^-^' tower of sticks that 



,1^^ rr/^g^^l^ another tarantula 

\i builds over its bur- 

;\« row. it looks like 

^1 the houses you 

' make of cobs or 

sticks. 

NEST-BUILDING TARANTULA _ 

Harold: 1 he spi- 
der looks as if it were covered with warts. 

Hazel: I believe that those are spider 
babies, and the mother has been out walk- 
ing with them. There must be more than 
forty. There are two on her fore legs. 

Spider: I hardly think you have counted 
right, but there is a large family. 

Iva: Please tell us how spiders that live 
in tents make them. 




^M^^^^^^:^i^,,„ 



154 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Spider: They stick leaves together with silk and glue. 
Then they lay their eggs on the under side of the leaves. When 
they hatch, the whole family live beneath their leafy covering. 
Some spiders sew up the top part of a banana leaf; that makes 
a cozy home. There is still another that lives in the pine- 
apple. The spines of the plant make a strong support for 
the web, and also protect the spiders from their enemies. 

CURIOUS SPIDERS 

Spider: Some spiders make no houses at all, but just 
wander about. You might call them tramps, for they live on 
whatever they find. They can walk backward and sidewise 
as well as forward. They can also jump quite well. Some- 
time you may see a small butterfly stay a long time on a 
blossom. It is dead, killed by a little spider that lived in the 
flower. The spider waits for insects that come to suck honey. 
Some of these little spiders are white, some are yellow. The 
white spiders always live in white flowers, while the yellow ones 
are found in the goldenrod and other yellow flowers. None of 
these spiders spin webs, but wait in the flowers till some insect 
comes their way. Another spider imitates ants, holding up 
one pair of its legs to look like the antennae, or feelers, of the 
ant, and running from one side to the other as an ant does 
when looking for food. The ant goes that way 
when hunting; but this mimic goes that way all 
the time. Here is its picture, and you can see 
whether it looks most like an ant or a spider. 

Harold: Why does a spider want to look like 
an ant? 

Spider: There is a bird that has an appetite for spiders for 
its breakfast, but does not care for ants; so the spiders make 
themselves look as much like ants as possible, and imitate their 
actions, so the birds will not molest them. There is a spider 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 155 

in Africa that mimics the ants for another purpose. Where 
it lives, ants and flies visit trees on which they find a sweet 
sap, and this spider makes itself appear like an ant so that 
it may steal in among the ants and flies, and while they are 
busy eating, grab the flies, and thus secure a meal for itself. 

Glenn: Is there a spider called the harvestman? 

Spider: It is better known as daddy-long-legs, because its 
legs are so long when compared with the size of its body. A 
man once watched a harvestman standing in a nest of ants. 
It kept lifting its long legs, one after another, to keep out of 
their way, and at one time all but three of its legs were sticking 
straight out in the air. Spiders like soft and sweet music. At 
concerts some of my relatives have been seen letting themselves 
down to listen until the instruments began playing loud; then 
they quickly climbed back to the ceiling. 

Hazel: I read of a spider that lived in a room where there 
was a piano. When any one was playing, it would let itself 
down and hang over the instrument; and when the music was 
finished, it would go back again. 

Harold: In St. Nicholas is this story: " Madam Spider 
was not visible. I knew, however, she must be in her gossamer 
parlor, which is attached to her web. I rapped a tuning-fork 
on a stone, and in a moment a soft, melodious hum filled the 
air. I touched one of the spokes of the web with the fork. 
On the instant madam flew out of her parlor in great haste, 
hesitated a moment at the outer edge of the web, and then, 
instead of going straight to the tuning-fork, ran to the very 
center of the web. There she caught hold of each of the 
spokes, and gave it a little tug as a boy does his fishing-line to 
see if a fish is hooked. Each was passed by until she came to 
the spoke on which the tuning-fork rested. Then she stopped, 
and it was easy to see she was excited. She gave the wxb a 
shake, then tugged at the spoke again. Hum-m-m-m, still 



IS6 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



sang the fork, rather faintly now, however. Madam was 
satisfied. Her mind was made up. Down she darted, and 
caught the end of the fork in her arms. She tried to bite 
into the hard metal, and at the same time she spun a web of 
silk around the two prongs, which by this time had ceased 
vibrating. I pulled the fork away, and Madam Epeira [the 
garden-spider] retired in disappointment to the center of the 
web. Probably she mistook the hum of the fork far the buzz 
of a fly, a sort of music, no doubt, very sweet to her. Time 
after time I repeated the experiment with the fork, touching 
in turn each spoke of the web, and each time Madam Spider 
was deluded into trying to capture the tuning-fork. " 
Iva: I do not think spiders are pretty. 

Spider: Perhaps you would if you saw some wee ones no 
larger than a grain of sand, that wear bright red dresses. The 
larger ones are clad in sober colors, brown or black, and many 
persons think their furry coats are rich-looking. Some kinds 
have smooth bodies, and wear very little to cover them. 
Glenn: Do you and your relatives live a long time t 

Spider: Most of us live only one year, 
but some live two, three, or even four 
years. 

Hazel: Is the scorpion related to you .^ 
Spider: She is a distant relative, but I 
have little acquaintance with her. Scor- 
pions are found in hot climates. This is 
a picture of one. You see scorpions do 
not look much like spiders. 

Iva: What a long tail it has ! 
Spider: There is a powerful sting at the end of it, 
which inflicts a very painful wound, which some- 
times causes death. Scorpions are mostly small, 
but the largest grow to be six inches long. 




A TEXAS 
SCORPION 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 157 

Glenn: Do the scorpions spin webs as the spiders do? 

Spider: No, they do not make homes for themselves, as 
we do, but live under stones and in other places. Some- 
times they get into houses, and hide away in the beds, or in 
boots and shoes. They can run very fast, and while running 
wave their long tails to frighten their enemies. 

Iva: What do they eat.f^ 

Spider: They sometimes steal eggs and eat them, and they 
like crickets, grasshoppers, and other insects. The mother 
scorpion carries her babies around on her back till they are 
able to care for themselves. 

PRETTY IS THAT PRETTY DOES 

The spider wears a plain brown dress, 
And she is a steady spinner; 
To see her, quiet as a mouse. 
Going about her silver house. 
You would never, never, never guess 
The way she gets her dinner. 

She looks as though no thought of ill 
In all her life had stirred her; 

But while she moves with careful tread, 
And while she spins her silken thread, 
She is planning, planning, planning still 
The way to do some murder. 



'Tis not the house, and not the dress, 
That makes the saint or sinner. 
To see the spider sit and spin, 
Shut with her web of silver in. 
You would never, never, never guess 
The way she gets her dinner. 

• — Alice Cary, 



COLEOPTERA 



Bug- or Beetle, Which? 

Iva: See this big bug, Harold! 

Harold: That isn't a bug. 

Iva: If It isn't a bug, then what is it? 

Harold: It's a beetle. 

Glenn: But I thought beetles were bugs. What is the 
difference? 

Harold: I do not know what the difference is. Let us 
ask the beetle himself. Mr. Beetle, are you a bug as well 
as a beetle? 

Beetle: Bugs have a long tube through which they suck 
their food. In some this tube projects from the upper jaw; 
in others from the lower, and when not in use It is folded 
away under the body. Beetles have two jaws and two lips, 
and chew their food. What you call May-bugs, June-bugs, 
pinch-bugs, potato-bugs, and tumblebugs 
are not bugs at all, but beetles. My wings, 
too, are different from those of a bug. 

Glenn: I see you have two wings. 

Beetle: Those are not wings. They are 
wing-cases, called elytra, in which my real 
wings are folded till I wish to use them. 
They are hard and horny, and as my wings 
are thin and delicate, they protect them 
from harm. They meet together in a 
straight line on my back, while a bug's 
wings lap over each other when folded. 

158 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



159 




BEETIE WITH WINGS 
SPREAD 



The first picture shows the wing- 
cases folded; the other shows them 
spread ready to fly. 

Iva: Are there many 
kinds of beetles? 
Beetle: Men who make 
a study of insects say there 
are one hundred thousand vari- 
eties, and there are yet many 
more to which they have not given 
names. 

Harold: What is your family 
name ? 
Beetle: Col-e-op'te-ra, which means sheath-wing. The 
word beetle means biter, and was given us because we bite our 
food with our strong jaws. 

Hazel: Are you like other insects in being larvae and pupae 
before you become perfect beetles .^ 

Beetle: Yes. We have six legs, as they have; we have feel- 
ers, or antennae, and our bodies are divided into three parts. 
Glenn: Do you make houses to live in, like the ants, bees, 
and wasps .^ 

Beetle: We prefer an out-of-door life. Our bodies have 
such a strong covering that we need nothing more to protect 
us. Some beetles have such handsome wing-cases that ladies 
wear them in their hair and as ornaments on their dresses. 

Harold: You seem to be clad in armor such as soldiers 
used to wear. 

Beetle: It serves the same purpose for me that their armor 
did for them. 

Iva: Do beetles live on the land or in the water .^ 
Beetle: Both; they are found in all sorts of places. 
Harold: And some of them do great harm. 



i6o 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Beetle: There are others that do much good and are use- 
ful to men. 

Hazel: What do beetles eat? 

Beetle: Many live on plants and in seeds and trees. These 
are the ones you think do so much damage. Others are your 
good friends, and kill insects that eat fruits and plants. Some 
beetles eat animal as well as vegetable food. 

Iva: Do you have as many eyes as the fly.^ 

Beetle: Some have more eyes than any other insect. One 
beetle, and it is not a large one either, has twenty-five thou- 
sand eyes. Like the house-fly, it has compound eyes. 

Glenn: Do you breathe through tubes in your body, like 
other insects t 

Beetle: Yes; I have no lungs, and do not take In air as you 
do. Instead, I 
have breathing 
holes all over my 
body, even in my 
feet, but these 
tubes are so small 
that they can 
only be seen by 
the aid of a 
strong glass. 

Harold: Are 
all beetles about 



your size 



Beetle: No, in- 
deed; some are so 
big that they are 
called giants, and 
others are so 
small that they 




IMPORTED ELM-LEAF BEETLE 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



i6i 



look like tiny do.ts when placed on white paper, and can only 
be seen under a microscope. There are thousands of others, 
all shapes and sizes; some look very ugly, while others are 
beautiful. There are diving, dancing, jumping, and shooting 
beetles. Some are like lamps at night; some make oil; some 
act as undertakers; and some are so fierce and savage that 
they are like tigers and crocodiles. 

The Potato-Beetle 

Mother: Many insects we call bugs are beetles. There 
was a time when farmers were not troubled with the potato- 
beetle; I well remember when these beetles visited our early 
potato-vines. I was a little girl then. They were first seen 

near the Rocky Mountains, 
feeding on wild potato-vines. 
When farm- 
ers settled in 
Colorado and 
planted pota- 
toes, the po- 
tato-beetles 
ate the new vines, their numbers 
greatly increasing; and they have 
been destroying our potato-fields ever 
since. Have you noticed the eggs this 
beetle lays on the under side of the 
leaves? They are the color of an orange, and there are from 
twenty to fifty standing on end all in a cluster. 

Hazel: What are the ugly-looking creatures on the 
vines } 

Mother: They are the larvae. The picture shows the eggs, 
larvae of different sizes, and the perfect beetle. It takes the 
eggs but a few days to hatch, and then the larvae begin to eat 
II 




POTATO-BEETLE, 
EGGS AND LARV^ 



1 62 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

the potato leaves, and they keep at it until the vines are 
stripped. They are greedy, and grow fast. 

Iva: Do they change to pupae? 

Mother: Yes, but they go into the ground, where they sleep 
until they are ready to come out perfect beetles, with brown and 
yellow stripes on their wing-cases. The next time you see one 
of these beetles, count the stripes. 

Harold: How did they get to the Eastern States t 

Mother: They traveled at the rate of one hundred miles a 
year until they came to the ocean. Then some of them stole 
a passage over to England and France, and began eating 
potato-vines in those countries. It takes only a month for 
the t^g to become a perfect insect. The true wings, under- 
neath the striped wing-cases, are a beautiful rose-color. 

The Ladybird 

Mother: The ladybird is a beetle. Some call it ladycow, 
but its true name is Coc-ci-neFla. You have seen her many 
times. 

Hazel: That little red bug with black spots t I saw sev- 
eral to-day. 

Mother: Here is the picture of one flying. You see it has 

wing-cases and wings under them, like the beetles 

we talked about. When its wings are folded, 

LADYBIRD thcy somctlmcs peep out a little behind, like a 

FLYING white petticoat. 

Iva: I saw one which looked as though it cracked open all 

at once down the middle of its back; and then it flew away. 

Mother: It was spreading its elytra, or wing-cases. Notice 
the spots on the wing-cases. How many do you find.^ 
Glenn: Here is one with ten spots, and one in 
the next picture has only two. They each seem 
to have a different number. 





Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



163 



Mother: Different members of the family vary, for there 
are many kinds of ladybirds. Some are coral red with black 
spots; some are black with red spots; others are yellow with 
black spots; and some black ones have yellow spots. One is 
called the eyed ladybird, because it has red wing-cases on 
which are black spots on a ring of yellow, looking like eyes. 
There is one kind that has no spots at all. 

Iva: These are pretty. 

Mother: They are also useful; the larvae devour millions of 
plant-lice, which harm our trees and plants. 
The mother beetle lays about fifty eggs in 
a cluster on the under side of a leaf. The 
larvae are lead-colored, with bright red or 
yellow spots, and as soon as hatched they 
scatter over the tree or plant, hunting 
for food. 

Iva: What do they eat? 

Mother: Plant-lice, or aphides. The 
hungry larvae devour immense numbers of these tiny creatures. 
They are especially useful where hop-vines grow, and save 
large sums of money for the grower. They also preserve 
other plants. Two ladybirds, when placed on two geraniums 
covered with aphides, cleared them all away in twenty-four 
hours. 

Glenn: Do the larvae go into the ground to change to pupae t 

Mother: No, they live about three weeks and then pass to 
some quiet place and hang by the tail to a leaf with their heads 
down. They become shining black, with a row of orange- 
colored spots on the back. They remain pupae two or three 
weeks, and then become perfect beetles. • 

Glenn: Ladybird beetles smell bad. 

Mother: I suppose that is their way of protectin 
selves. 




g them- 



164 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Harold: Do ladybirds live through the winter? 

Mother: Many do. They hide away in sheltered cracks 
and corners, and sometimes crawl about on warm winter days. 
Mr. Wood says in some places there are more ladybirds than 
we should think possible. He has seen the streets red with 
them; inside the houses they made a band of red along the walls 
and ceiling, and a big bunch was hanging in each corner. 
They had saved the harvest of hops that year, and were looking 
for a warm place to spend the winter. As fast as driven out of 
the houses, others came in, and were kept alive by the warmth 
of the fire. 

TIGER-BEETLES 

Mother: The wing-cases of tiger-beetles are blue, green, 
and other bright colors; one is so brilliant that it is called the 
sparkler. These beetles shine like precious stones. The larvae 
wait for prey as 

an animal does. "''v^n./jl^X^/ \^ 

From the pic- v w,^ \dli^/ '*^, 

ture you will see 
how these bee- 
tles look. They 
are about two 
thirds of an inch 
in length. 

Harold: 

What kind of homes do tiger-beetles have? Do they live in 
holes made in the ground? 

Mother: Yes; they dig the holes themselves, to the depth 
of more than a foot. They choose light, sandy soil and begin 
by digging up earth with their jaws and fore legs, placing it on 
top of their flat heads. When they get a good load, they 
carry it up and throw it as far as they can from the mouth of 
the hole, much as the ant-lion does. The ant-lion makes a 





■^ 




TIGER-BEETLES 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 165 

funnel for a trap, while the tiger-beetle forms a chimney or 
tunnel in the ground. It keeps busily at work, carrying out 
loads of earth as a mason carries his hod. At .^,,g,^,,^.«^., . 
the bottom of the tunnel it makes a little r"*''% "^3 
room, in which it lives. ^^ 

Glenn: How does this beetle get its food? 'jt 

Mother: When its tunnel is finished, it 
goes to the top, fastens itself to the wall by 
two hooks that grow out of its body, opens 
its wide, sickle-like jaws, which just fill the ." t 

top of its tunnel, and there waits until some 
unsuspecting insect comes along; for in this 
position it can scarcely be seen. Some- ^^i#^stli'ti 

times it seizes the insect as soon as it touches larva of tiger- 
it; at other times it falls to the bottom in a beetle 

great hurry, and its prey tumbles in after it. It seems always 
hungry, and looking for something to eat. 

Hazel: Do these beetles change to pupae in their tunnels? 

Mother: Yes; and very quaint little creatures they are 
while asleep. 

Glenn: Do they hunt when they become perfect beetles? 

Mother: Many do, but they also eat other food. They are 
active, and quickly pack and unpack their wings in their wing- 
cases, flying only a short distance before lighting. They run 
faster and fly more swiftly than most beetles. Some hunt 
caterpillars, and will climb trees to find them. If the beetle is 
held in the hands, the perfume of roses is so strong and pleasant 
that it seems as if one had handled rose-leaves. 

THE BEETLE WITH A GUN 

Mother: The bombardier-beetle is a sober-looking little 
fellow, with dull-blue wing-cases. It makes its home under a 
stone in a damp place. It is from one fourth to one third of 



i66 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




SHOOTING AN ENEMY 



an inch long, and carries a sac of liquid in its body. When 
pursued by a larger beetle, as it runs to get away, it shoots 

this liquid right into the 
:^-y„ . f^ce of its enemy, which is 
c^('?'^^^*i^w,- more scared than hurt; for 
just as it expects to seize 
little Bombardier, a cloud 
of blue vapor pops into its face and eyes. So it runs away. 
Harold: Can the bombardier shoot more than once? 
Mother: Yes, several times. If we turn up a stone where 
a family of these explosive little beetles live, pop! goes one; 
and pop ! pop ! pop ! pop ! pop ! they go, until every one shoots 
off his little gun to frighten away the big giant that dares to 
meddle with their home. A dark stain is left on the skin where 
the liquid hits. Mr. Wood gave one of these beetles a little 
squeeze after it was dead, and its gun went off as though it 
were alive. 

Harold: If soldiers could do that, so many would not need 
to go to war. 

Glenn: Do other beetles shoot .^ 
Mother: One other, which is quite common 
in England. It is much like the bombardier, 
and protects itself in the same way. 

JUMPING BEETLES 

Mother: There are beetles which act as 
policemen for the farmer and gardener. 
Their family name is Car'a-bus, but there 
are many different kinds. This picture shows 
how one of them looks. They have long legs, 
strong jaws, and large eyes. They are all 
brave, swift, and strong. They live under 
stones and the bark of trees, but may often jumping beetle 





Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 167 

be seen in fields or roads hunting for caterpillars and other 
pests that destroy crops. Many wear uniforms of green, 
blue, and gold. Those that wear the brightest colors are 
found in Siberia, Italy, and China. They never steal from 
the farmer, and their whole business is to destroy thieves. 
They work for us all the time and ask no pay, except the 
body of the thief, which they soon land safely in jail, which is 
found inside their own bodies. 

Glenn: They must be like a cat in the granary or toads in 
the garden. 

Mother: There is another beetle of which you will like to 
hear. It has a number of names, but is best known as skip- 
jack, snap-beetle, spring-beetle, and click- 
beetle, though its proper name is El'a-ter, 
which means elastic. It has a long, slen- 
juMPiNG ORGAN OF THE dcr body, aud short legs. Some of these 
ELATER,sEEN siDEwisE bcctlcs arc vcry small, and others are an 
inch and a half long. One kind has two big black spots on 
its gray back that look like eyes. When these beetles fall on 
their backs they can jump several inches into the air, and 
generally come down on their feet. 

Hazel: How can the Elater jump when it has such short 
legs, mother? 

Mother: It has a spring in its body. When it falls on its 
back, it begins to kick and tries to get on its feet. If it fails, 
it lies quiet an instant, but presently it springs into the air. 
If it lands on its feet, the performance is over; if not, it jumps 
again and again till it succeeds. Sometimes it seems to get 
angry if it fails the first time, and then jumps five or six times 
without stopping. If not on its feet after so much effort, it 
stops to rest awhile, lies perfectly still, and then tries again. 
While lying on its back, it rests its weight on its head and on 
the tip end of its body, as you see in the picture. Then it 



i68 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




\ suddenly unbends with a 
.j( click and spring, and up 
it goes into the air. 
Iva: Can the larvae 



- ' jump 



"look at it!' 



Mother: No. They are 
called wireworms, on ac- 
count of tlxeir long, narrow 
shape. They do much mis- 
chief by eating off the roots 
of growing grain. They 
bore into potatoes, beets, 
and other vegetables. They remain larvae five years. Chil- 
dren sometimes gather and destroy them on account of the 
harm they do. One boy collected eight hundred wireworms 
in one afternoon. 

Glenn: Are there any more jumping beetles? 

Mother: There is one more name, Or-ches'ti-a, which 

means jumper. If turned out of its home, it hops about in a 

funny way like a flea. It has long hind legs like a grasshopper. 

There are about five hundred different kinds of click-beetles. 



Night-Lights in the Meadow 

Hazel: See ! it looks as if the grass were full of moving stars. 

Glenn: Those are fireflies. Hazel. 

Mother: We call them fireflies, but they are little beetles 
that carry a light wherever they go. They be- 
long to the same family as the jumping beetles. 
Another name given them is glowworms, but 
they are neither flies nor worms. Run out, 
Harold, and see if you can catch one of these 

; '' Male Female 

little night-lamps for us to study. fireflies 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 169 

Harold: Here are two, mother. 

Iva: Did they burn your hand, Harold? 

Harold: Not a bit. I think they must carry cold fire; for I 
felt no more heat than if I had been holding a common fly. 

Mother: The room is dark now, so we can see them better. 
The wing-cases are not so hard as those of most beetles. This 
one is a female and has no wings at all, while the male has 
rather large wings, and soft, long cases to cover them. His 
light is not so bright as that of his mate; some people think he 
carries none at all. 

Harold: What makes the light? It seems to come from the 
under side of the body. 

Mother: It is produced by the slow burning of something 
inside of the body; of what, we can not tell. The name of this 
beetle is Lam-py'ris, which means shining tail, because the 
light is in the hinder part of the body. If the insect is placed in 
oxygen gas, it gives a brighter light, as it does when excited. 

Harold: Do the larvae shine, too? 

Mother: Yes, and even the eggs glow with a soft, greenish 
light. The larvae are useful in devouring young snails, which 
would eat our vegetables. The little fellows move 
into their shells, and have a queer way of stop- 
ping up the door with their old skin 
when they change to pupae. Here 
is a picture of a beetle which gives 
light from two bright spots on its 
thorax. It is found in South Amer- 
ica. It is called the lightning Ela- lightning elater (cucujos) 
ter, though the Spanish people give it a different name, 
cucujos. 

Glenn: Do these beetles give more light than our fireflies? 

Mother: Much more; one can even see to read by their 
light. At night they may be seen in great numbers sparkling 




I70 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



amid the leaves of trees, where they ''flitter, flutter, wheel and 
reel, turn and burn, " all through the hours of the night. 

"Among the choked lanes, on every hedge. 
The glowworm lights his gems; and through the dark 
A moving radiance twinkles. " 

Harold: I should think that one of them might serve very 
well as a lantern. 

Mother: Travelers use them that way, and in the hot 
countries where they are found, one would hardly travel at 
night, where there are so many snakes and reptiles, if it were 
not for their friendly light. Sometimes they are fastened to 
the boots, and sometimes held in the hands. When no longer 
needed, they are carefully placed on a bush or shrub, to go where 
they please. The Indians use them to lighten their huts, and 
women wear them as ornaments. They are put into gauze 
bags and fastened to the hair or dress. After being worn, 
they are put into tiny cages, fed on sugar-cane, and bathed 
twice each day to keep them alive. 
All fireflies Kve in damp places; 
the cucujo must have plenty of 
water. If it is tired and thirsty, 
its light becomes pale and dim. 

Iva: What is this picture.^ 

Mother: It is the stag-beetle. 

Glenn: Does it have that name 
because it has such large horns .^ 

Mother: I think so; and also be- 
cause they look like those of some 
deer that have wide, branching ant- 
lers. That which you call horns are 
the beetle's jaws. Though it looks so fright- 
ful, it would not bite unless you should try 
to hold it in your hand. The stag-beetle is 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 171 

one of the largest beetles we have in this country. These 
beetles are sometimes nearly three inches long, though they 
are often found not half that size. They are so large that 
they can not fly so well as other beetles. They fly only in 
the night, and hold their bodies very straight. The head 
and thorax are black, the wing-cases dark brown shaded to 
black at the edges, and the jaws are brown also. In the 
months of May, June, and July they may be seen hooked to 
forest trees by their mandibles. 

Glenn: What do they eat? 

Mother: A kind of honeydew found on oak-trees, and they 
also eat the leaves of the oak and willow. Swedish people call 
them the ek-oxe^ which means the oak-ox. I read of a man 
who kept one as a pet. It would follow him about like a dog if 
he offered it honey. They have been seen eating insects, too. 
They have curious feelers, like the teeth on a comb. 

Glenn: Where do the larvae live.^ 

Mother: The mother stag-beetle lays her eggs in the rotten 
wood of oak-trees. When the larvae hatch, they eat the bark, 
leaves, wood, and roots of the trees, and their jaws are so 
strong that they sometimes do much harm; for, like all beetle 
larvae, they are great feeders. 

Harold: How long do the beetles remain larvae, mother.^ 

Mother: From four to six years. When ready to change to 
pupae, they make a case of the chips of wood from which they 
have sucked the juice, and stick them together with glue from 
their mouths. Should you visit the South Kensington Mu- 
seum, in London, you might see a cocoon made by the pupa of 
a stag-beetle, from which the top is removed like the lid of 
a coffin, showing the beetle inside. Mrs. Stag-beetle has a 
smaller head than her mate, and has no horns. 

Iva: I saw some beetles rolling a ball to-day. It was as 
round as a marble, and about the same size. There were three 



172 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




TUMBLEBUGS 



or four working with all their might 
roll it. What kind of beetles are they 

Harold: Those were tumblebugs. 

Mother: Their proper name is sea] 
There is a large family of them, and 
some have strange shapes. Their ball 
rolling is a serious matter to them, 
and they work very hard to get 
it to some hole where they can 
bury it. Inside the ball is an 
Qgg hidden by the mother 
beetle. The papa beetle helps 
her roll the ball along, and they 
pull and push together with all 
their might. 

Iva: The ones I saw to-day 
rolled theirs up a little hill, and it rolled away again, and they 
rolled down with it. 

Mother: That often happens, but it never discourages 
them. They work all the harder to get the ball to the place 
they wish to bury it. Sometimes, when they find the load too 
heavy, other beetles help them. The mother beetle has no 
care for her children after she leaves the eggs in the right place. 
She places food enough in the ball to last the baby till it is 
able to provide for itself. The balls are not round at first, but 
become hard and round by being rolled about. These beetles 
are sometimes called pill-makers, because their balls are shaped 
like pills. 

Harold: These tumblebugs must be very nimble in using 
their legs. 

Mother: The hinder ones are set far back, and are long, too. 
This makes it hard for the beetles to walk, and they may often 
be seen going backward, and tumbling head over heels. In 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



173 



Egypt this beetle is worshiped as a god. Here is a picture 
of Khepera, a form of the Egyptian sun-god. He has the body 
of a man, the tail of an ox, and a head made in the form of 

a beetle. This is the way his 

name was written. The Egyp- 
NAME KHEPERA tlans thought the egg-ball of the 
IN WRITING i^gg^jg ^^^ ^ jg^j human body 

were alike, in that each was made of decay- 
ing matter, and each contained a germ of 
life. They saw that living beetles came 
from the egg-balls, and they believed that 
a spiritual body would come from the dead 
human body; so Khepera was thought to 
be the god of the resurrection. As the 
beetle was a part of him, it became a sym- 
bol of the god, and a type of the resur- 
rection. 

Glenn: I read that models of beetles 
were buried with dead bodies in Egypt. 
Mother: The Egyptians thought the 
beetle had given the germ of life to its eggs, so an image 
shaped like a beetle would give life when placed near a dead 
body, if certain words were written on it. 
Living people also wore images of beetles, 
called scarabs, as ornaments. Scarabs of 
every form and kind have been found in 
Egypt, and thousands may be seen in the 
British Museum. Mummies have been 
found with scarabs wrapped in with the cloth 
enclosing the body, lying about loose in the 
coffins, and even in shallow holes under the coffins. In one 
tomb thousands were found, placed there to make sure that 
the body would have a resurrection. 





EGYPTIAN SCARAB 



174 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




Harold: If the Egyptians had re- 
membered that only God can give 
life, and that he placed it in every 
tiny insect's ^gg, they would not have 
trusted in the image of a beetle to 
bring their dead friends to life, nor 
have worshiped the insect. 

Mother: And they would not have 
worshiped the sun had they remem- 
bered the fourth commandment; but 
they forgot God's day and God him- 
self. They became sun-worshipers, 
and then began to w^orship oxen, 
frogs, beetles, and many other crea- 
tures. 

Hazel: Did the Egyptians have 
any other use for the scarabs.^ 
Mother: They made some large 

ones, two or three inches long, 

and even larger, on which they 

wrote things they wished to re- 
member. King Amenhotep had 

written that during the first ten 

years of his reign he shot with 

his own hand one hundred two 

fierce lions. Scarabs were also 

used as seals and worn on rings. 

From them men have learned 

many events of history which 

took place thousands of years 

ago. Undertakers kept them 

to sell. Sometimes they were 

placed on the breasts of mum- 

SCARAB OF AMENHOTEP III 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 175 

mies, or even inside the bodies of the dead to take the 
place of the heart. On one scarab in the British Museum is 
found a prayer asking for a boat in which the dead person 
might sail; that her eyes and ears might be given her; and that 
she might see the land of the gods. Some of these were made 
at the time of King Pharaoh. 

Giant Beetles 

Mother: There are more than three thousand different 
kinds of beetles in the family to which the Egyptian scarabs 
belong. They are divided into six general classes. One class 
is of use because it eats decaying matter, which would make 
the air impure. To this belong the tumblebugs. One kind 
lives on flowers, and still another delights in eating honey. 
Another class eats leaves; and another is skilful in boring 
into wood, where it makes its home. These last are the 
giants among beetles, as Goliath was a giant among men. 

Iva: Is this a picture of one of them? 

Mother: Yes; and it is life-size. These immense beetles 
are sometimes five or six inches long, but are quite harmless. 
Mrs. Goliath is not quite so fierce-looking as her mate. They 
are found only in hot countries. They are often seen in 
museums, and two hundred dollars has been paid for a single 
beetle; but they are now more common. 

Hazel: How are they caught.^ 

Mother: When seen fluttering about the tops of trees, 
hunting flowers for food, the trees are felled, or the beetles are 
shot with sand, to bring them to the ground. 

Glenn: Do they eat wood.^ 

Mother: Their larvae do. It is well for us that they live in 
tropical countries, whefe there is plenty of timber on which 
they can work. 



176 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



177 



Iva: What color are they? 

Mother: Bright green, yellow, and other colors. The one 
in the picture is found in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of 
Africa. Giant beetles are also found in Brazil. 

Iva: What are the beetles in the picture doing, mother .f* 

Mother: They have found a dead mouse, and are going to 
bury it. They are sexton- or burying-beetles, and their busi- 
ness is to bury out of sight any dead body that may be found. 




SEXTON- OR BURYING- 
BEETLES 



They have a strong, unpleasant smell, caused no doubt by 
their contact with the dead, and by the food they eat; but their 
bodies are covered with a kind of oil that keeps their coats 
from becoming soiled. They are never more happy than when 
they find some carcass to cover with earth. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sexton always go together when looking for a job of this 
kind. When they find a dead body, they walk all around it, 
stop, and plan how they can best get it into the ground. Per- 
haps other sextons happen along, until there are a large number 
to attend the funeral of Mr. Mouse. They first eat all they 
wish of the dead body; for the sextons are flesh-eating beetles. 
Then Mr. Sexton begins work, while the others look on. He 
plows a little furrow around the dead body with his head. He 
works awhile, stops for rest, then works again, plowing deeper 



12 



178 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

and deeper around and under the body. If the ground is very- 
hard, they drag the mouse to a place where the grave is easier 
to dig. 

Harold: I should like to fasten the body with a string, and 
see what they would do. 

Mother: A stick was once run through a mouse, thus firmly 
fastening it to the ground, and the body was also tied with a 
string; but the sextons dug around the stick and loosened it, 
and cut the string. 

Glenn: Do they really dig a grave deep enough to bury 
the mouse .f^ 

Mother: Little by little the body settles into the ground, 
until it is buried from seven to ten inches deep. It is slow 
work, but they keep patiently at it, digging, tramping, press- 
ing, pushing, pulling, for they have no tools but their heads and 
feet with which to work. 

Glenn: How large are sexton-beetles ? 

Mother: About an inch long. 

Hazel: Do they do all that work just to get the dead mouse 
out of sight .^ 

Mother: No, they have a very different purpose. They are 
making a home for their children, and laying up stores of food. 
When the grave is deep enough, they throw the loose earth 
in so the mouse can not be seen. Mr. Sexton makes a side 
doorway, or tunnel, into the grave, and Mrs. Sexton goes 
in and leaves some eggs. After both beetles have eaten all 
they wish, they come out and fly away to find other things 
to bury. 

Harold: Mother, how long does it take the eggs to hatch .^ 

Mother: About two weeks. The body of the mouse pro- 
vides the larvae with food until they change to pupae. When 
ready for this change, they go deep into the ground to sleep 
and rest. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



179 




THE SHORT-COATED BEETLES 

Mother: There is a family of beetles whose wing-cases look 
as if they had been outgrown; but we know this can not be, 
for all insects are full grown soon after 
they leave the pupa-case. 

Harold: This one looks as if it had 
on only a waistcoat or a vest instead of 
a coat. 

Hazel: Are their wings longer than the 
cases that cover them.^ 

Mother: Yes, the wings of all the mem- 
bers of this family are large, and though 
we should think it hard to fold and unfold 
such big wings under such small cases, yet beetle 

these beetles get ready to fly in less time than most others. 
When folding their wings, they bend their tails over their 
backs, and use them as a help in putting the wings into the 
cases. On account of this habit they are called cocktail- 
beetles. They look like flies because they have such broad 
wings and fly so quickly. Many of them are very small. 
They are what we call little black flies, the ones that try to 
get into our eyes on summer evenings. 

Harold: If they turn up their tails when they get under our 
eyelids, it is no wonder they hurt. 

Iva: This one looks as if it were trying to stand on its head. 

Mother: That is a strange beetle, common enough in Eng- 
land, called the devil's coach-horse. It belongs to the short- 
coated family. It is very black, and when its tail is raised, it 

looks like a scorpion. It can not sting, but has such a 

bad odor that one does not -care to go near it. 

Its odor was no doubt given it to protect it from 

DEVILS COACH- ^^^ cncmics. It is always ready for a fight. Mr. 

jiORSE Wood once found one of these beetles at the foot 




l8o Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

of a flight of stairs. It did not seem at all afraid; and when 
Mr. Wood shook his cane at it, it dashed at the cane with 
open jaws; and it followed him to the very top of the stairs, 
angry, biting, seeming not at all afraid of man or cane. 

Harold: There seems no end to the beetle family. 

Mother: We have talked of only a few kinds, and in each 
of these families there may be thousands of different varieties. 

The Weevil Family 

Hazel: See the holes in these beans, mother. I find a great 
many in them. 

Mother: You would hardly think such a tiny hole could be 
the home of a beetle. It was made by a little weevil. 

Glenn: I found some in the peas, too, when I was looking 
them over. 

Mother: Here is one alive in this bean. Not only peas 
and beans, but wheat, corn, rice, and all kinds of seeds and 
fruits that we use as food, are chosen by the weevil family for 
their food as well, for they are all vegetarians. 

Weevil: We are a large family. 
^^^.There are more than five hundred 
kinds of weevils known in -England 
PEA-WEEVIL alone. There are so many of us 

that it is not known just how large the family is. We live 
in wheat, corn, rice, peas, beans, turnips, asparagus, apples, 
pears, plums, nuts, and, in fact, any kind of grain or fruit. 
We eat roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, and fruit. 

Harold: I read that about two tons of weevils were sifted 
from one hundred forty-five tons of corn. How do weevils 
get into seeds ? 

Weevil: The mother weevil lays an ^gg in a kernel of wheat 
or some other kind of grain. When the larva is hatched, it 




.©( 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



i8i 



finds itself living in a house made of food, and it loses no time in 
beginning to eat. It never eats the outside of the house it 
lives in so the grain appears all right. Here is a picture of my 
cousin the pea-weevil. It is taken large so you can see the 
shape of weevils. 

Iva: You have a trunk almost like an 
elephant's. 

Weevil: It is shaped some like it, but it 
is a snout or beak, not a trunk. It is hard 
and horny. With it I dig out my food, and 
it is also used to bore in wood or bark. 
We are shaped some like the ant-bear, only 
we are such wxe creatures that it takes 
more than a dozen to measure an inch. 
Some are so small they are called iiea- 
beetles. We are much larger in hot coun- 
tries, as are most insects. There is a wee- pea-weevil— enlarged 
vil in South America that lives in palm-trees. It is black, 
and about an inch and a half long. Its larvae grow two or 
three inches in length, and the people of that country fry and 
eat them. 

Iva: Are weevils bugs or beetles? 

Weevil: All weevils are beetles. Most of them wear dull 
colors, though some, like the diamond-weevil of South America, 
are golden green and as brilliant as gems. 




WONDERFUL WEEVILS 

Weevil: One family of weevils make their houses in the 
fat sides of turnips. The mother weevil lays her eggs under 
the rind, and warts, or galls, grow out, in which the larvae live. 
They do little harm, and are only one eighth of an inch in 
length. On the next page is a picture of a weevil as it 
climbs a stalk of wheat and eats the tender grain when half 



l82 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



stron 





; so tightly to the wheat stalk that the 

of wind can not shake it off. 

il another weevil that works on the grafts 

fruit-trees in a way the farmer does not 

like. It bores into the center and 

makes a little room, where it leaves 

an ^gg, pushing it into place with 

its beak. Then it climbs below the 

place where the Qgg is laid, and cuts 

the stalk part way off, then climbs 

up so its weight will make the stalk 

fall over. If it does not fall at 

first, it goes back and cuts deeper, 

then tries again, until it faHs, as in 

the picture. As it lays two eggs a 

day and keeps cutting off shoots 

for several weeks, it does quite a stalk-boring 

little damage to the farmer's trees. weevil 

Iva: Do weevils eat flowers as well as wheat and 

other grain? 

Weevil: They do; one kind works in apple blos- 
soms. As the bud is ready to open, the mother wee- 
vil makes a hole with her long, slender beak, and 
places an ^gg inside the bud, so it never opens nor 
bears fruit, but looks as if it had been burned. But what 
could be more dainty than to lie in such a sweet bed, with 
apple-leaf blankets tucked closely about the little one, who 
eats and sleeps there? The mama weevil can not fly, and 
she lives under moss or bark most of the year. If you want 
good apples, do not let moss grow on the trunks of the trees. 
A ring of tar will help to keep the apple-blossom weevil away. 
There is a weevil that lives under the bark of apple-trees and 
bores tunnels into the wood. It is called the apple-bark weevil. 



WEEVIL CLIMBING 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



183 




PLUM-WEEVIL, 

LARVA, AND 

PUPA 



The plum-tree borer works In plum-trees in much the same way. 
Harold: Does the weevil eat plums, too ? 
Weevil: Not exactly; but it might as well. It eats half- 
way through the stalk, then pierces the fruit, and beside the 
hole leaves an Qg^^ which it presses into 
the fruit with its beak. Then it eats the 
stalk nearly off, so it falls to the ground. 
This picture shows it at work, and also 
shows the larva and pupa. 

Harold: Isn't there a weevil called 
curculio that eats into plums 1 

Weevil: There is a whole family of 
curculios. Some eat apples; others like 
plums; still others choose apricots, peaches, and other kinds of 
fruit; and others eat nuts. 

Iva: How can a worm with its soft body get into nuts, 
when they have such hard shells ? 

Weevil: The shells are not always 
hard. While the nuts are green and 
tender, the weevil bores a hole with its 
long beak, puts an tgg inside, and the 
opening soon closes. As the nut grows, 
the larva eats the kernel, and when 
ready to turn to pupa, it eats a hole 
through the hard shell and crawls out. 
Harold: I read about some jumping 
beans that grew in Mexico. When 
placed on a table, they kept hopping 
about. There was a little worm inside 
about the size of hazelnut larvae. It 
lives in the bean from August to May, and keeps jumping 
all the time. The ^gg was laid in the flower, and there was 
not even the tiniest spot to show how the worm got inside the 



PLUM 
CURCULIO 




1 84 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



bean. The writer said the beans looked more like nuts than 

beans. I wonder if these worms were weevils. 

Weevil: There is a little weevil that lives on the mustard 

plant, and eats nothing else. It eats holes in the leaves, and 
often only a skeleton of the plant is left 
standing. There is also the acorn-weevil, 
>"" ^^^^^^ ^%^ which eats its way into acorns. Almost 
every kind of fruit and grain has its wee- 
vil. Some are no larger than an exclama- 
tion-mark, while others are over an inch 
long. They feed on grasses, clover, this- 
tles, seeds, grain, roots, leaves, bark, blos- 
soms, and fruit. Some wear sober colors, 

and others are covered with bright scales as fine as dust. 

One of the prettiest is so small that a thousand could be put 

into a thimble. Some kinds are so numerous as to destroy 

fields, vineyards, and forests. 

Hazel: I should think the birds would eat many weevils. 
Weevil: When we are in danger, we fall down as if dead, 

and roll ourselves into little balls, which look like gravel-stones 

or earth-balls. 




POTATO FLEA-BEETLE 



The Merry Dancers 



Glenn: See how fast those little things go on the water. 
Now they are all gone. They 
must be divers as well as dan- 
cers. 

Harold: I have caught 
one in my net. I believe it 
is a beetle; for it has horny 
wing-cases. Perhaps we can 
coax it to tell us its storv. 




WHIRLIGIGS 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 185 

Whirligig: My proper name is Gy-ri'nus na-ta'tor, though 
I am called whirligig and whirlwig, because I dance about on 
the water. 

Harold: Why do you dance about so ? 

Whirligig: I am hunting my food. I am the size of an 
apple seed, and my body is shaped like a boat. My hind and 
middle legs are like the ^ fins of a fish, but my 

long front legs are much ^ )a; / li^^ your arms. My 
head is quite small, and ^^HT ^ have double eyes; half 
are above, and with BlillP them I can look at 
things in the air; half ^^^ are below, so I can look 
down into the water, gyrinus na- As I dance about, a fish 
might try to seize me ^^^^^ from below, but I can 

see it coming, and jump out of its way; or if a bird darts 
down from above, I can see it and dive into the water. 

Harold: Are you dancing about looking for something to 
eat all the time ? 

Whirligig: No; sometimes a number of us get together and 
have a game of tag. We frisk and freak, skip and skim, wheel 
and whirl, curve and curl, with very joy because we are alive. 
We have pads on our feet, and the hairs on the pads catch and 
hold tiny bubbles of air. 

Iva: Can you fly as well as dance .^ 

Whirligig: Certainly. When we get tired of one pond or 
creek, we fly away to another. 

Hazel: Please tell us about baby whirligigs. 

Whirligig: Mother Gyrinus lays her eggs in two neat rows 
on some water-plant, and they hatch in about a week. At the 
end of summer they come out and spin a little cocoon in which 
to sleep while in the pupa state. In a month the perfect Gyri- 
nus is ready to live. It plunges into the water, and there 
spends the rest of its days. In winter we stay in the mud 
among the roots of plants. When the weather is warm, we 



i86 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



come up to the surface to enjoy the sunshine, and to have a 
game together. 

Iva: Are all whirligigs as small as you? 

Whirligig: Most of us are small, but in tropical countries 
there are some an inch long. Some prefer to live where it is 
aways cold, but I like this pond. 



GIANT WATER-BEETLES 



Tell us 




Glenn: Here is a beetle we have not seen before, 
your name, please. 

Beetle: My true name is so long I do not believe you would 
remember it half a minute. It is Hy-droph'i-lus, but I am also 
called the great water-beetle. I am the 
largest water-beetle known, being nearly 

two inches long. My mother 

is a spinner, and she spun 

a little water-tight cradle 

shaped almost like a turnip. 

She covered the outside with 

gum like rubber, and it kept 

growing harder, so the babies 

EGG-CASE OF c> O 7 

WATER-BEETLE insldc wcrc kept cozy and 
dry. There were about sixty of us broth- 
ers and sisters when the eggs were all 
hatched. Our cradle-boat was fastened 
to a leaf. Here is a picture of it. There is a tube at the 
upper end. The picture shows how the eggs looked inside. 

Hazel: What is the tube for.^ 

Beetle: To give the babies fresh air. 
• Glenn: How long did you stay in your cradle.^ 

Beetle: It was about two weeks before we came out of the 
eggs. We all dropped to the bottom of the cradle, where we 
stayed several hours; but we were so hungry that we soon ate 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



187 



We 
Here 




LARVA OF WATER-BEETLE 



a hole through the silky wall, and then we dropped into the 

water. 

Iva: What did you find to eat? 

Beetle: Snails and other things ; and we grew and grew 

soon outgrew our skins, and changed them three times. 

is my picture when full 

grown as larva. I was 

about three inches long, 

and always hungry. At 

last I lost my appetite, crawled out of the water, and dug a 

hole in the soft bank, where I made a cell and turned to pupa. 

It took quite a long time to become a beetle, — thirty-one days. 

Then I rested twelve days before I was ready to begin life as 

a full-grown beetle. 
Hazel: Can you fly.^ 
Beetle: Yes. I like best to fly at night. It is so pleasant 

to skim about in the moonlight* above the pond, and see how 

frightened the frogs are as we fall into the water with a splash. 
Cousin Dy-tis'cus, only half as large as I am, 
is a quarrelsome fellow. I keep as far from 
him as possible. He carries a spear, or fork, 
on the under side of his body. He 
always walks backward when trying 
to get away from one attempting to 
catch him, and as soon as he gets a 
chance, he will stick his spear into 
one's hand, so he is glad to let go. His spear 
is shaped like this, and it makes a wound 
that smarts much. Like the rest of us, he can 

discharge a liquid which has such a bad smell that it 

serves to protect him from harm. He can not walk very 

well, but scrambles about. If he happens to fall on his back, 

he whirls round and round in a very funny way. This is his 





DYTISCUS 



1 88 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

picture. See his curious forefeet. They look as if he were 
holding a ball in each one. His other legs are like oars, the 
same as mine. He will devour any kind of fresh meat. I 
never go near him, for although I am larger than he, if he gets 
a chance he pierces me at my weakest point, which is just back 
of my head, and would kill me if he could. 

Glenn: Can he fly, too.^ 

Beetle: As well as I can. When he wishes to take an air 
journey, he crawls up a stalk or reed, spreads his splendid wings, 
and away he goes. He may be found in almost any pond. If 
you watch closely, you may see him standing on his head in 
the water. This he does to get air. He does not carry a 
supply in a ball under his breast, as I do, but keeps it under his 
wing-cases. They are air-tight. When he wants a supply of 
fresh air, he comes to the top of the water, drives out the bad 
air he has used, and takes in a fresh supply while standing on 
his head with the upper part of his body out of the water. 

Some Odd Beetles 

Mother: There is a little beetle that marks a shield on the 
bark of aspen-trees, where it lays its eggs. The mother beetle 
rests on a branch with her head downward, and cuts a shield 
like this picture. 

These shields may be seen cut in bark at the 

South Kensington Museum. She does it with her 

jaws, cutting from a to Z>, and from h to <:, then 

from a to r, then she makes two or three straight 

WORK OF ASPEN- Hncs across thc middle. Cutting the bark and 

BEETLE depositing the ^%% causes the stem to swell. In 

this swelling the larva lives for two years before turning to 

pupa. At the end of June the perfect beetle emerges from a 

swelling on the side opposite where the ^%% was laid. 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



189 



Harold: I read of 
on a branch above an 
her eggs down into it. 
eggs and carry them 
and afterward they 
ties as they do for 

Glenn: There are 
act as if dead when 
their legs under their 
signs of life, even when 
of these little mimics 
its body, which retains 
a little round, dusty 
legs be torn from its 
any sign of life. That 

Mother: The musk- 
It emits a smell like 
when it is near without 



THE TIMBERMAN 



one beetle that goes 
ants' nest and drops 
The ants pick up the 
into their nurseries, 
care for the baby bee- 
their own young ones, 
mimic-beetles, which 
caught. They fold 
bodies, and show no 
roughly handled. One 
has fine down covering 
the dust, so it looks like 
stone. It will let its 
body without giving 
i s surely wonderful, 
beetle has long horns, 
musk. One can tell 
seeing it, and it gives 



the odor of musk to anything that touches it. Musk-beetles 
are also called squeakers, because they make a squeaking 
noise by moving their heads quickly up and down. Here is 
a picture of another long-horned beetle. 

Iva: Its horns must be three or four times as long as its 
body. What does it do with them when flying ? 

Mother: They trail behind. It is called the timberman. 
It is always ready for a fight with one of its brothers. Some 
little beetles have neither eyes, mouth, nor ears. They live in 
the nests of yellow ants, and are yellow themselves. 

Hazel: Last night as I lay in bed I heard, *'Tick, tick, tick, 
tick. " I wondered what it could be, for there was no watch 
nor clock near by. 



190 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

H'arold: That must have been the deathwatch, one of the 
tiniest of beetles, so small that it lives in a hole no bigger than 
a pin-head. 

Mother: No doubt you have seen timber that was said to be 
worm-eaten, but it was beetles, not worms, that tunneled the 
little galleries. They live in wood as larvae, pupse, and perfect 
beetles. They bore and bore and bore, and the older and 
harder the wood, the better they seem to like it. 

Glenn: I read that one of these little fellows was seen to 
come from a desk that had been used in an office in London for 
twenty years. When the wood was planed down, the holes 
where the larvae had eaten through the solid oak wood were 
easily followed, and no one could tell how long the beetle had 
lived there. 

Hazel: Here is a picture of one. If it stood on end and 
the legs were out of sight, it would look like a 
little old woman in a hood. 

Mother: It can draw its head back under its 
DEATHWATCH j^Qod. The plcturc is many times larger than 
the beetle itself. 

Harold: I read about a beetle found by Mr. Paul Kibler 
near the Amazon River. He called it the dragon-beetle. It 
is about an inch long. Large numbers crawl on the sand near 
the river, and when touched, they squirt a liquid into the air 
which turns to vapor or smoke. A snapping, popping sound is 
heard, and at the same time something burns the finger, and it 
feels as if an electric wire had been touched. The liquid stops 
the breath, as does the smell of strong ammonia. The natives 
are afraid of this beetle, and say if the liquid gets into the eyes 
it causes blindness. Mr. Kibler caught about a thousand of 
them. 

Mother: There are nearly five hundred kinds of beetles that 
live in ants' nests, Beetles are to be found everywhere, and 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 191 

are of all sizes, from immense goliaths to tiny creatures that can 
not be seen unless placed under a strong glass, and of which it 
would take one hundred placed in a row to make an inch. Yet 
these little dots have the most beautiful colors, and bodies that 
are wonderful to those who study them. Some sparkle like 
gems. All are busy, each in its own place and way. The 
family is so large that we can not hope to get acquainted 
with them all. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT BABY TUMBLEBUG 

Baby Tumblebug was tucked av/ay in an ^^g, sound asleep. 
Father Tumblebug and Mother Tumblebug, his parents, were 
two black beetles who lived in the barnyard. Of course they 
talked tumblebug talk, and no one can be sure of what they 
said. It seemed like this: — 

"Do you suppose the baby is warm enough?" asked 
Mother Tumblebug. 

"Put some more blankets on him if you think he is not," 
said Father Tumblebug. "Here, I will help you. We must 
roll him up snug and warm. " 

Then they rolled Baby Tumblebug in so many blankets that 
he was entirely hidden among them; indeed, he was wrapped 
in a regular ball of blankets — a ball bigger than his father and 
mother put together. The blankets were nothing but dirt. 
The Tumblebug family have always used that kind. Thou- 
sands of years ago in Egypt, their ancestors set the fashion. 

It was lucky for Baby Tumblebug that he was sound asleep, 
or he might have been frightened when his father and mother 
rolled him over the hills and valleys on his way to the nursery. 

"It seems to me," said Mother Tumblebug, "that under 
that tall grass by the fence is just the place that will suit us. " 

They were looking for a suitable nursery for Baby Tumble- 
bug. He was too young to be left on top of the ground, ex- 



192 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

posed to the hot sun and possible enemies. All tumblebugs 
spend their baby days in underground nurseries. 

"Just as you think best, " replied Father Tumblebug, stand- 
ing on his head, and getting into position to push the ball, 
while Mother Tumblebug climbed on top of it. 

"Now I am ready. Father Tumblebug, " she said, leaning 
all her weight toward the front of the ball. Father Tumblebug, 
walking on his hands, kicked with his hind feet. Mother 
Tumblebug pulled, and over went the ball. This was done 
again and again. As often as the ball went over, Mother 
Tumblebug climbed to the top, ready for another start. Not 
for an instant did she leave Baby Tumblebug. Even when 
Father Tumblebug gave a mighty kick at the top of the hill, 
she kept tight hold of the precious bundle, rolling over and 
over with it until the ball stopped. 

"Are you hurt .^ " he asked, running to her assistance. 

"No, thank you," she answered; "I bumped my head a 
little, that is all. " 

MotherTumblebug'sheadwasflat,0, ever so flat! 

" I was afraid the baby would get uncovered, but he is safe, 
the little darling. You must be more careful. Father Tumble- 
bug. I told you we should have gone the other way. I almost 
knew we were on a hill. " 

Father Tumblebug did not say a word, but he looked as 
cross as a bear. It was not so easy as it seemed to help roll 
that ball by standing on his head and kicking with his hind 
legs. She ought to have told him of the danger 

At last a place was found to put the baby. It exactly 
suited Mother Tumblebug, so she and Father Tumblebug 
shoveled away the earth beneath the ball. 

"Now run away. Father Tumblebug, run away. I can get 
the baby into the nursery without any more help, thank you. " 

Father Tumblebug was very glad to be excused. Mother 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 193 

Tumblebug was a great worker. She was not a bit afraid of 
spoiling her hands or her clothes. Upside down she went be- 
neath that precious bundle of hers, digging with her hands 
and feet into the earth, and tossing it above the ball. Slowly 
Baby Tumblebug, cradle and all, went into his down-cellar 
nursery. Mother Tumblebug had a middle pair of legs, with 
which she clung to Baby Tumblebug's bundle of blankets, at 
the same time pulling it downward. In a little while she was 
out of sight, and how she ever managed to dig deeper into the 
darkness of the ground is something known only to tumble- 
bugs. When her work was done. Mother Tumblebug climbed 
through the loosened earth into the daylight. That was the 
last she ever knew of Baby Tumblebug. 

When he awoke, he crept out of his t'^^, and ate everything 
he found among the blankets. He outgrew his baby clothes 
in no time, and finally when he was big enough to wear the 
same kind of suit that his father and mother wore, he left 
the nursery, poking his queer, flat head out of the earth — a 
baby tumblebug no longer. — • Sunday School Times, 



13 



LEPIDOPTERA 



Butterfly or Moth 

Hazel: You are very pretty, Mrs. Butterfly. It seems as 
if your wings were covered with rainbow dust, they are so 
bright and have so many different colors. Do you have just 
two wings ? 

Butterfly: No, there are four — two forward and two hinder 
ones. I have no claws nor sting, and I carry no gun nor spear, 
so can only protect myself by flying away from my enemies. 
Birds and dragon-flies would soon eat me if they had a chance. 

Harold: To what family do you belong? 

Butterfly: To the Lep-i-dop'te-ra. Our family is divided 
into two general classes, — butterflies and moths. Butterflies 
fly in the daytime; moths fly in the evening and at night. 
When the butterfly rests, its wings are raised straight up over 
its back, or keep moving up and down; when a moth lights, its 
wings remain flat and sloping like the roof of a house. A 
butterfly's horns, or antennae, usually stand out straight and 
have little knobs at the ends; those of the moth curve, and 
hardly ever have knobs. The wings of most butterflies are 
much alike on both sides, while moths have their brightest 
colors on the upper side. The larvae of butterflies spin only a 
little; those of moths spin a great deal. Moths destroy much 
more that is useful than do butterflies. 

Glenn: Where do butterflies live.^ 

Butterfly: In all parts of the world where flowers grow. 
They are found even in Greenland. In hot countries we grow 
larger and wear more brilliant colors than in colder climes. 
The tropical butterflies are very large, and their colors are 
so bright that you might fancy they were flying rainbows. 
194 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 195 

Iva: Mrs. Butterfly, will you please tell us what you eat ? 

Butterfly: Honey, always honey, though there are a very 
few butterflies who have the bad taste to eat the juices of dead 
animals. No butterfly hunts and kills other insects. We suck 
honey from the beautiful flowers, and delight in their colors, 
which are so much like our own. We are children of the sun- 
shine and the fl.owers, and our lives are spent without an 
anxious thought or care. As we quiver on the edge of some 
dainty flower, sipping honey, folding and unfolding our gor- 
geous wings, do we not make a beautiful picture.^ 

Harold: I am sure that of you it might truly 
be said that ^^ Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these." 

Butterfly: And we take pleasure flitting here butterfly at 
and there as we dart through the air, playing ^^^^ 
with our companions, rising higher and higher till we disap- 
pear over the tree tops. 

" From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly. 
Is all we have to do beneath the radiant sky. " 

My brilliant colors are on the inside or upper side of my wings. 
Some have them that way for protection. Now I shall light 
on this gray wall a moment. 

Hazel: Where has our butterfly gone? I didn't see it fly 
away, did you t 

Butterfly: I was here all the time. I simply folded my 
wings, and the colors on the under side are so like the wall on 
which I am standing that you could hardly see me. That is 
one way I have of protecting myself from birds who would put 
an end to my life if they could. My eyes are large, so I can 
watch for them. We have compound eyes. Some butterflies 
have sixteen thousand facets in one eye. 

Harold: That would make thirty-two thousand eyes for one 
butterfly! 



196 



Friends an4 Foes in Field and Forest 




PROBOSCIS 

OF 
BUTTERFLY 

changes. 



Butterfly: I have a long tube, or proboscis, with which I 
suck honey from flowers. It looks like a black thread. Here 
is a picture of it. I can curl it up out of the way. It is a long 
pump made of two half-tubes, as if a tube were split 
in two lengthwise. I can open this tube, hook the 
two sides together, and then stick it deep into a 
flower and pump out every drop of honey there. 

Harold: Did you come from an Qgg'^ and were 
you larva and pupa before you became a perfect 
butterfly? 

Butterfly: O, yes ! All insects pass through those 
Some butterflies' eggs are more beautiful than you 
can imagine. They may be seen in every shape and color, 
white, orange, red, blue, and green. Some are round, others 
long; some are pear-shaped, and some look like the tiniest 
loaf of bread. The outside of some is carved in exquisite 
patterns. Others are perfectly smooth, but glow like pearls. 
Some have raised lines all over them, or little warts. The 
strangest of all is the ^^g that has a little door at the top, 
which the larva lifts when ready to come out. Some are 
fastened with a tiny spring which the insect touches at the 
right moment and in the right way. 

Glenn: Please tell us if butterflies' eggs are like birds' eggs 
inside ? 

Butterfly: No, nor outside either. Birds' eggs break be- 
cause the shells are so brittle; but butterflies' eggs are hard 
and horny, so they are not broken easily, and inside they are 
filled with greenish fluid, and have no yolk. 

Harold: Where do butterflies lay their eggs ? 

Butterfly: On any plant that provides the right food for 

their children. Some choose one kind, some another, but 

they never place their eggs on the wrong leaves. You can 

learn about butterflies by getting the eggs and watching 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



1971 




LOOPERS, OR GEOMETERS 



^ 



them through the different changes until they become but- 
terflies. There is no other insect that you can study so well. 
Iva: Will the larvae of butterflies eat all kinds of leaves t 
Butterfly: That depends on the kind of larvae. Some will 
eat anything, from a rose-leaf to a 
thistle. One kind has been known 
to feed freely on twenty-seven dif- 
ferent plants. Others will starve 
to death before they will eat more 
than one kind. 

Glenn: Are the larvae worms? 
Butterfly: They are caterpillars. 
Iva: But caterpillars are worms, 
aren't they.^ 

Butterfly: No, indeed; a worm is never anything but a 
worm, but all caterpillars become either butterflies 
or moths. 

Hazel: How do caterpillars become butterflies.^ 
Butterfly: Caterpillars are long and round. Their 
bodies are made up of a number of segments, or 
rings. They have hard, horny jaws, which move 
like scissors. Near the head is a spinneret, for cat- 
erpillars can spin silk as well as spiders can. You 
have learned that they eat leaves, and they lose no 
time in beginning, for that is their earliest occupa- 
tion, and they are very hungry. Sometimes their 
first meal is the empty egg-shell from which they 
were hatched. Then they begin to eat the leaves 
of their food plant. They have six true legs, which 
end in hooks, and they also have from two to ten 
false legs, or claspers, by which they hang fast to 
leaves and stalks when eating. Those having the 
ITS THREAD most Icgs Walk with a smooth, waving motion, and 



LOO PER HANG- 
ING BY 



198 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

take short, quick steps. Some have legs only at each end of 
the body, and are called loopers, or geometers. You have 
seen these caterpillars stretch out and then curve the body 
into an arch, as shown in the picture. 

Glenn: They can take long steps that way. 

Butterfly: Some loopers are the color of the bark on which 
they rest. With their hind legs they take hold of a branch, and 
then stand out straight, looking like a twig. In this way they 
stand for hours without moving; thus they "play possum" all 
day, and feed at night. Some of these strange caterpillars 
have heads like buds, and little lumps on their bodies like 
notches in twigs. They spin as long or short a thread as they 
please, and, though it looks so weak, it is strong enough to hold 
them in the air. The caterpillar can stop or go on as it chooses ; 
it can descend from the topmost twig of the highest tree to the 
ground; then it can climb up again, rolling up its thread as it 
mounts. When it goes as high as it cares to, it cuts the thread 
and throws away the tangled ball, for it can make a new one at 
any time it pleases. Each kind of insect, in eating, leaves its 



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v::aJ«V<:iM««=:!^-;-..-,^-... 




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1 



FRAGMENTS OF LEAVES EATEN BY CATERPILLARS 

own mark. Here are pictures of some of the patterns they make 
on the leaves. 




CROSS MADE BY A BUTTERFLY 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest I99 

Iva: They look like embroidery. What wonderful workers ! 

Butterfly: One butterfly always writes her name by making 

hole in the leaf in the form of a cross, and she eats away 

a part of the soft, green surface of the 

leaf around the cross. 

Hazel: Do caterpillars live alone .^ 
Butterfly: Some do, the same as bees 
and wasps, while others stay in com- 
panies. 

Glenn: Aunt Jennie said that in the 
South Kensington Museum there is a round nest as large as a 
foot-ball filled as full as possible with large caterpillars. 
Harold: Do all caterpillars eat leaves t 

Butterfly: A few feed on flowers and fruit. Most of them 
grow very fast, and eat greedily. Some eat their own weight 
in leaves every day. 

Iva: Do they eat the edges of the leaves first? 
Butterfly: Yes; they pass the edge of the leaf between their 
legs, and stretch out the head as far as possible. Each bit of 
leaf IS swallowed as soon as cut. 

Harold: Do caterpillars change their dress as they grow. ^ 
Butterfly: O, yes, many times. The skin on their bod- 
ies and their legs, and the horny covering of the head and 
jaws, and the inside lining of the mouth are all changed. 
Two or three days before the change, the caterpillar stops 
eating and keeps very quiet. Its colors fade, and its skin 
dries up and splits open on the back. The opening keeps 
growing larger till it is big enough for the head to be drawn 
out, and then the rest is easy. It takes only a minute to slip 
off the old suit. 

Iva: Does the new skin look like the old one .^ 
Butterfly: The same, only it is bright and clean and large. 
The caterpillar is very tired after the change, and rests several 



200 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

hours. But then It has more room for food than before. Some 
eat up their old skins; others move to new feeding-grounds, but 
all begin to eat more greedily than ever. 

Harold: Why do caterpillars eat so much? 

Butterfly: Because they must grow. All insects attain 
their full size while larvae. While in the pupa state, they eat 
nothing, so they store up fat for that time. 

Hazel: Many caterpillars wear such bright colors I should 
think they would be eaten by birds. 

Butterfly: I suppose many are, and yet they have ways to 
defend themselves. Some wear thick coats of fur and roll 
themselves into balls, which make hairy mouthfuls that no 
bird would care to swallow. Some are covered with hairs that 
sting and burn, making them very 
unpleasant to handle. Do not touch 
them with bare hands, for the hairs 
come out and stick in the flesh like 
briers, and sting like nettles. 

Glenn: Can any caterpillars shoot 
like some beetles ? 

Butterfly: Yes, only they shoot 
people instead of insects. -5^^^^-^^ 

Harold: A man went to look at ^ ^^^^^ mouthful 

some caterpillars he had put into a dish and covered with glass. 
As he removed the glass, one of them squirted liquid into his 
eye. He rushed to the doctor, but for several days could not 
see at all with that eye. Another man was hit on the nose, 
and the liquid was so poisonous it took the skin off. 

Hazel: Do caterpillars eat at night .^ 

Butterfly: Many do; some are so hungry that they eat both 
night and day. They have many deadly enemies. The ich- 
neumon-fly is one of the worst. It lays its eggs in their bodies, 
and the larvae live inside as free boarders. Some caterpillars 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 201 

lift their heads and look very fierce to frighten Mrs. Ichneumon 
away, as a hen ruffles her feathers when she thinks her chickens 
are in danger. It is a serious matter with the caterpillar. One 
caterpillar has two horns on its tail, out of which it sticks two 
long red streamers, which it waves about like danger-signals. 
Another has very long front legs, with which it warns away 
unwelcome visitors. Others look like spotted snakes, and the 
birds are afraid of them. One caterpillar in India can even hiss 
like a snake. 

Hazel: Once when I touched a caterpillar it rolled itself 
up into a ball and dropped to the ground. I tried to find it 
again, but could not. 

Butterfly: That was its w^ay of protecting itself. There are 
quite a number that adopt that plan when touched or if the 
branch on which they are feeding is shaken. Those that feed 
on leaves are green, and their color protects them. 

Harold: I suppose the pretty butterflies we see in the air 
spent their early life hidden in some quiet place, eating and 
growing, resting and waiting, until at last wings were given 
them, and they entered on a higher life. Perhaps it will be 
that way with some of our lives. It may seem as if they are 
hidden and lost, but some day we, too, may have wings; we 
may be bright as the sun, and shine like the stars. 

THE CHRYSALIS 

Hazel: Did you crawl into the ground to pass through the 
pupa state .^ 

Butterfly: No. When I felt that my days as a caterpillar 
were ending, I stopped eating, and found a snug corner in the 
fence, where I began to spin, and covered quite a large place 
with a mound of silk. I wanted something to which I could 
hang myself. After I had spun enough silk, I hung my 
body up by the hooks in the legs nearest my tail. For about 



202 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




CHRYSALIS OF 
THE LARGE TOR- 
TOISE-SHELL 



twenty-four hours I kept squirming and twisting 
about until the skin burst open on my back, and 
I came out in a new, fresh skin, not at all like my 
old one. I had a new body, too. I was no longer 
a caterpillar, but a creature without head, legs, or 
wings. I kept hold of the old skin I had just 
pushed off. My new body was made of rings that 
overlapped one another like a telescope, so I 
caught hold between two of the rings, and 
climbed to the top of my old skin, fastening my- 
self to the silk by a little hook. My next work 
was to push the old skin off. I gave a big jerk, 
and whirled round and round. That did not 
loosen it, so I twirled around the other way butterfly 
awhile till away it went, and I was free. Then I took a 
nap lasting two weeks. 

Harold: Do all caterpillars hang themselves 
as you did.^ 

Butterfly: No; some fasten themselves to a 
leaf or twig, or hide away in any cozy corner 
they can find. Some spin a belt to hold them- 
selves to the place where they turn to pupae. 
The caterpillar spins a thread of silk, and fast- 
ens it on one side of its body, then passes it 
over and fastens it to the other side, so making 
a strong band which holds it in place when it 
can no longer move. Here is a picture of chrys- 
alises as they look with belts around them. 
Some caterpillars fold two or three leaves into a 
little house, and there pass their pupa days. 
Some make a cocoon of earth, and line it with a 
kind of paste that comes from their bodies. 
Some bury themselves in the ground, and the 




pup^ fastened 

BY BELTS 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 203 

chrysalises look smooth and shiny, as if varnished. Some 
pull out their hair and mix it with silk to make their cocoons. 
Others cut off their hair. If the cases in which they wrap 
themselves are opened, the caterpillars are found naked. 

Hazel: Do some make cocoons of silk.f^ 

Butterfly: Caterpillar moths do. They spin more than we 
can. When butterflies or moths can not get what they want to 
make a cocoon, they use what they can get, as paper or cloth. 

Harold: How long do they stay in the chrysalis state .^ 

Butterfly: Some remain in it all winter, and they have been 
seen with icicles hanging from them. The cold does not kill 
them. They have been shut in ice-boxes during the summer, 
and so kept for a year. They do not seem to mind the cold; 
they may be frozen stiff so they will snap like glass, and yet 
become butterflies. Chrysalises have been put in a warm 
place in midwinter, and the butterflies soon came out. 

Harold: A gentleman once found a double chrysalis. It 
seemed that two caterpillars had agreed to build a cocoon to- 
gether; but when the inside was examined, it was seen there 
had been a falling out, and neither developed into a butterfly. 

Glenn: Is it as hard for the butterfly to get out of the chrys- 
alis as for the caterpillar to change its skin? 

Butterfly: About the same. When I was ready, the dried 
skin in which I had been sleeping began to crack open on top 
of my head and thorax. I kept moving and wriggling about, 
and soon there was a place big enough for me to stick my head 
out. I was tired and weak, but after a little I succeeded in 
drawing my body and wings and legs out of the tight place 
where they had grown. My wings were folded up so tightly 
and in such small space that I had to wait until they unfolded 
and dried. At first they were thick and flat, but while I 
waited in the sunshine, they spread out and became firm and 
hard. My whole body became fit for the new life I now lead. 



Earth to Air 

A little worm on a branch of gray 
Began his work one summer day. 
He planned and built, he wove and spun, 
Until his tiny house was done. 

He laid the walls with leaf-green rails; 
He set the roof with golden nails; 
He wove a sheet of softest lace. 
And in its folds himself found place. 

He slept, and in the dark of night, 
Upon his sides grew wings of light. 
The shining house became a veil^ 
And gone was every golden nail. 

Through the thin walls of gauze I spied 
The rainbow wings he had not tried. 
They cradled close and folded tight 
His velvet body, strong and light. 

On sped the hours till sleep was done; 
Wide swung the doors to lifers new sun. 
He woke. He longed his wings to try. 
And found himself a butterfly. 

— Lydia A. Coonley. 



4 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 205 

WHAT BENNIE SAW 

Bennie was out in the orchard sitting under a tree. Ten 
minutes after mama had first looked, he was still there. Fifteen 
minutes later mama looked again, and there he sat in the 
same position. 

This was growing serious. Something must be the matter 
to keep Bennie sitting still a whole half-hour. Perhaps he was 
sick. Maybe he had hurt himself. But then he would cry. 
Could he be asleep sitting up straight like that.^ Mama went 
out to the orchard, and came up softly behind the little fellow. 
He was looking steadily at a srriall bush in front of him. Upon 
it was a large, handsome butterfly drying its wings upon Its 
empty shell. The butterfly stayed an Instant longer on the 
bush, and then, lifting its beautiful wings. It flew away, and 
was soon out of sight. 

The charm was broken, and Bennie sprang to his feet. 
On seeing his mother, he exclaimed, '^O mama, did you see 
it, too?" 

''I saw a butterfly fly away from the bush," answered 
mama. '^What did you see, Bennie.^" 

"Why, mama, I saw two bugs come out of bags, and turn 
into butterflies." 

"Did you, my dear.^ That Is wonderful! Tell me all 
about It, little man." 

"Well, I sat down here because I was hot running. I saw 
those bags stirring. I was going to pull them off, but those 
bags just opened their own selves, and two funny bugs crawled 
out. Those bugs crawled on top of the bags, and sat still. 
Pretty soon they swelled up, and I saw some wings grow on 
those bugs. They kept swelling and swelling, and the wings 
kept growing bigger, and I didn't dare stir. First one butter- 
fly flew off, and then the other. I saw all this, mama; I did 
not make believe one single bit." 



2o6 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

"I know you did not, Bennie; but the wings were there all 
the time; they were folded up tightly like the leaves of a rose- 
bud, and you saw them unfold," said mama. ''Don't forget 
it, dear; for you have seen a wonderful sight." — Selected. 

SPRING 

Listen! What a sudden rustle 

Fills the air! 
All the birds are in a bustle 

Everywhere. 
Such a ceaseless croon and twitter 

Overhead! 
Such a flash of wings that glitter 

Wide outspread! 
Far away I hear a drumming, 

Tap, tap, tap! 
Can the woodpecker be coming 

After sap.^ 
Butterflies are hovering over. 

Swarms on swarms. 
Yonder meadow patch of clover 

Like snow-storms. 

— Selected. 



Wings and Scales 



Hazel: One time I caught a butterfly in my hands, and 
when I let it go, there was colored dust or powder all over 
my hands. 

Butterfly: That was some of the scales that came from its 
wings. Butterfly scales are so small that they can be seen 
only when placed under a strong magnifying-glass. One man 
said the scales on our wings are as iovely as diamonds. On 
the opposite page are pictures of some of the different kinds 
of butterfly scales. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



207 



Glenn: Some look like little pitchforks; some are shaped 
like a fan, and some like flower-buds. How pretty they must 
appear under a glass that would show them as having every 
shade of color wq can think of. 

Butterfly: The closer you examine their shape and colors 
and arrangement, the more you wonder and are delighted. 




DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE SCALES OF BUTTERFLIES 

Glenn: Do the scales overlap one another like those of 
fishes ? 

Butterfly: I think so. The best way to learn about them 
is to study the butterflies themselves. We are of many sizes, 
from half an inch across our wings to those in tropical coun- 
tries whose wings spread a foot wide. 

Harold: Can you fly a long way? 

Butterfly: Yqs>, but we do not fly in a straight line. We 
go up and down and zigzag about; so a bird trying to catch a 
butterfly breakfast finds it not easy to do. 

Hazel: Do you live a long time? 



2o8 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Butterfly: No, our lives are short. People sometimes think 
we are idle creatures, but Mrs. Butterfly has other things to do 
than to show off her fine clothes. She must find a home and 
provide food for her children; and after laying her eggs she soon 
dies. Some lay no more than a hundred eggs, while some lay 
thousands. I suppose in a way our beauty is a protection, for 
many persons w^ho despise and destroy our caterpillar children, 
admire us as we flit about, and never think of blaming us for 
the thousands of caterpillars that eat their trees and plants. 
But moth caterpillars are most to blame for the mischief done. 
Harold: Do butterflies do any good ? 

Butterfly: We make the world brighter and the people 
happier, but I never heard that we furnish food for any people 
except some savages in Australia. Small butterflies are found 
there in great numbers. When they light on the rocks, fires 
are built under them, and they are smothered. Bushels of the 
dead bodies are gathered, and after the wings are removed, they 
are baked into cakes. Cabbage-butterflies are found in all 

countries from early spring till 
late autumn. They wear white 
dresses with veins and spots of 
black. The larvae live in groups 
on cabbage leaves, turnips, and 
mustard, and are so greedy that 
they will eat more than their 
weight of leaves every day. 
The caterpillars are greenish-yellow with long yellow stripes 
and black dots. You may find them among your cabbages. 
The small butterflies are called small whites, and the large 
ones are called large whites. There are sixty-four kinds of 
white butterflies. 

Hazel: What is the name of the butterfly that we see so 
often, of a brownish-yellow color with black stripes, and on 




CABBAGE-BUTTERFLY 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



209 




THE MISIPPUS BUTTERFLY 



its wings a black border 
spotted with white ? 
Butterfly: That is the 
misippus. Its caterpil- 
lars eat the leaves of 
poplar-trees. This butterfly, 
with wings like sails, is found in 
the White Mountains of New 
Hampshire, and is called the 
mountain butterfly. Should you 
visit Mt. Washington in summer, you would find it there. 
There are four kinds of mountain butterflies in the United 
States. You have often seen little Philodoce, the yellow 
butterfly. The name means lovers of the 
wayside. After a summer shower you may 
see dozens of them standing around a pool of 
water. They lift their yellow wings like 
dainty ladies, and stand and sip and flutter, 
making the damp ground look as if a shower 
of golden buttercups had fallen. Here is a 
picture of Pa-pil'io. 

Iva: It has tails on its wings. 
Butterfly: And for that reason it is sometimes called the 
swallowtail. Some butter- 
flies have tails an inch long. 
One is called asterias, which 
means starry. It has tiny 
yellow spots on its black, 
velvety wings, which look 
some like stars shining out of a 
dark sky. A picture of the aste- 
rias, one of its caterpillar, and one 
of its chrysalis, which has tied it- 
14 




THE MOUNTAIN 
BUTTERFLY 




210 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




THE 

ASTERIAS 

BUTTERFLY 




self to a twig, are shown 
on this page. 

Glenn: Then we have 
a picture history of the 
three lives it lives. 
Butterfly: Another butterfly, 
which is found on milk- 
weed, is called the 
monarch, or milkweed- 
butterfly; for it likes 
that plant best for food. It may often be seen in 
flower gardens. It is a beautiful creature. Its cat- 
erpillars are fat, with rings of black, yellow, and 
green around their bodies. Near the head and also 

near the end of the body are pairs 
of threadlike horns, which, when 
disturbed, these caterpillars wave 
like whips. The chrysalis is one of 
the prettiest you ever saw. It is 
green, sprinkled with dots of gold. 

Harold: Are the butterflies green and yellow.^ 
Butterfly: No, they are red. They are so large that they 
are rightly named monarchs. The male carries a little perfume 
pocket on each of his 
hind wings and no 
dandy ever wore a flner 
dress. They are great 
travelers, and fly north 
in summer and south 
winter. 

Glenn: I did not know 
that butterflies travel like 
birds. 



ASTERIAS 
CHRYS- 
ALIS 




THE CATERPILLAR, OR LARVA, O 
THE ASTERIAS BUTTERFLY 




MONARCH BUTTERFLY 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 211 

Butterfly: Most of them do not, but the monarchs do. 
They have even been found flying over the sea five hundred 
miles from land. As the weather becomes cold, they go in 
large numbers to warmer climes. In spring the mother mon- 
arch flies northward as far as she finds milkweed pasture, and 
then her children push onward still farther, so they are found 
in all countries and in the islands of the sea. Now you will 
want to hear about the viceroy, which is quite like 
the monarch, only smaller. It is an orange- 
red. The monarch has two rows of spots 
on its wings, while the viceroy has but one. 
VICEROY CATERPILLAR j^g likcncss to thc mouarch protects it 
from birds, which delight in butterfly dinners and teas, but 
the monarch is distasteful to them, while the viceroy would 
be reHshed. 

Hazel: How does a viceroy's o^gg look under a microscope.^ 

Butterfly: It is dark green, and is placed at the end of a 
poplar or willow leaf, the last one on the branch. Though the 
tgg is so small, it is carved in lovely patterns. 

Glenn: How many eggs are placed on a leaf? 

Butterfly: Only one. In a few days the brownish larva 
crawls out of its ^ggy and the first thing it does is to eat its egg- 
shell. Some prowling spider or hungry insect might see it, 
and find the larva; so the larva eats the egg-shell to protect 
itself, then goes to the end of its leaf and eats the soft part, 
leaving the hard midrib in the center. On this it perches in 
the daytime, and feeds mostly at night. This larva makes up 
a little bundle of worthless stuff, and fastens it with a silken 
thread to the midrib between its feeding-ground and resting- 
place. So if some insect should find that bundle, it would be 
discouraged about going any farther. It has another clever 
trick, it eats up its old skin as soon as it crawls out of it. The 
viceroy grows more ugly every time it molts. If disturbed, it 



112 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

swings Its head from side to side, and in all possible ways shows 
its rage. 

Harold: How does it look when it turns to a chrysalis? 
Butterfly: You would laugh if you saw one. It has a bunch 
in front that looks like the biggest Roman nose. No bird 
would try to swallow such a humpty-dumpty morsel, for fear 
of having its throat scratched as it went down. In about a 
month from the time the o^g^ is laid, the perfect butterfly is 
ready for flight. It lives in North America, and if it becomes 
larva in midsummer, when about a third grown it chooses a 
branch that grows near the ground, finds a suit- 
able leaf, and fastens the leaf to the branch by 
winding it about with silk, to keep it from falling 

VICEROY V^^Sfc. 1 1 -I 1 1 . 

to the ground, as other leaves do in autumn. 




CHRYSALIS 



It first eats the end of the leaf squarely off, 
then folds up the part that is left into a 
round roll, and sews a seam with ^silken 
thread. When this leafy tube is done, it lines it with soft, 
silky blankets of its own weaving, and then crawls inside for a 
long nap during winter. Its warty tail fills up the end and 
makes the door. 

Harold: How does it know winter is coming.^ 
Butterfly: I do not know; for it begins its work before there 
is a sign of frost or snow, and its mother did not build such a 
house. It chooses a leaf that will be covered up by the snow, 
and where it will be best protected from the cold. When the 
new leaves appear in spring, it backs out of its winter house 
and begins to eat. Another family of butterflies is called 
Va-nes'sa. They live on elm, willow, oak, and many fruit- 
trees. One is called Vanessa antiopa, and another Vanessa 
polychloros, or the tortoise-shell butterfly, because the rich 
brown dress it wears has the colors of the tortoise-shell. Its 
chrysalis is beautiful, and the baby butterfly looks as if wrapped 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 213 

in a case of gold. As it leaves the pupa-case, a little red 
liquid like blood drops from it. If a great many butterflies 
are hatched at the same time and place, there are a good 
many drops ; so ignorant people, when they saw them, thought 
there had been a shower of blood, and that some great calamity 
was coming upon the country. 

Harold: Had they known more about butterflies, they 
would have been saved this fright. 

Butterfly: One of the Vanessa family is called the red ad- 
miral, because it has bright red bands on its black wings. There 
is another called the white admiral. Vanessa antiopa has a 
broad white edging on her wings, so is sometimes called the 
whiteborder, or the Camberwell beauty. The Vanessa family 
is very common in Europe and America. A man once saw 
the Vanessa polychloros leave some eggs on a leaf, and he 
cut off the branch and put it away. Mrs. Vanessa wanted to 
put some more eggs with the others, so she kept flying about, 
up and down, hunting for the branch she had lost. She has a 
rule regarding the number of eggs to put in one place, and she 
could not be happy if obliged to put them in any other. The 
man saw how worried she was, so he tied the branch where 
it was before. Vanessa soon found it, knew it was the one, 
and put enough eggs on the leaf to make the right number. 

Harold: William Kirby spent several months on the Ama- 
zon River collecting diflferent kinds of insects. Lord Roths- 
child paid ten thousand dollars for the only butterfly that could 
be found of one family. A pretty black, purple, and blue 
butterfly found in South America, called the agrya, sells in 
Germany for fifty dollars. A pair was sold in San Francisco 
for one hundred forty dollars. But it is not easy to stay to 
catch them In a country that is full of snakes, and where mos- 
quitoes are so thick they cover one's body and bite through 
the heaviest clothing, and where tarantulas are big enough to 



214 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

cover a saucer. Mr. Kirby caught about five hundred with 
forceps so they could not bite him. He sold them for from 
twenty-five cents to one dollar each. 

Glenn: I should think anybody would be afraid there. 

Harold: Mr. Kirby was trying to find the Hecuba butter- 
fly. It is very hard to capture, as it flies twenty or thirty 
feet above the ground, and will not come nearer. They 
are sold for ten dollars each. Mr. Kirby tried to get them 
by putting bright-colored things in the path; he hung bana- 
nas In the trees; he tied a butterfly to a shrub, and, though 
its flutterings brought plenty of bright-blue butterflies, so he 
caught about five hundred, yet the Hecuba sailed on above his 
head. Then he tried strong-smelling baits; then he sang to 
them half an hour at a time, but they flew no lower than be- 
fore. At last he set a mirror in the path where it would re- 
flect the sun. A big Hecuba came along, saw the glittering 
thing, and flew straight down. It did not seem to see the man 
at all, and in an instant was in the net. Mr. Kirby had no 
trouble then in getting as many as he cared to obtain. While 
he had been waiting and working three months for that prize, 
he found many strange creatures. One was a snake that made 
a sound like a crying baby. Another was a wasp that could 
sing like a jew's-harp. But best of all was a little bird that 
called out in a clear voice, "Bentivi, " which in the Portu- 
guese language means, "I see you," or '^Peek-a-boo." 
There are tiny butterflies called coppers and blues, because 
they are of those colors. Another is called the purple em- 
peror. One pretty butterfly is called the painted lady. 

Hazel: Aunt Jennie has seen in different museums some 
that were the brightest blue, and much larger than any we ever 
saw. Others looked as if covered with black velvet, with green 
and gold for trimming. One from South America was eight 
inches across its wings. It was golden brown, mixed with other 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



2IS 




shades, and was very beautiful. The wings of the dead-leaf 

butterfly look like withered leaves. 

Iva: I didn't know there were so many kinds of butterflies. 

Harold: I suppose we 
have learned about only a 
very few of them. There 
is a farm in England de- 
voted to raising butter- 
flies. Three acres of land 
covered with bushes and 
a few big trees, are used for 
this purpose. The trees 
and shrubs are enveloped 
in huge bags of gauze to 
protect the caterpillars 
and butterflies from the 
birds. At this place all 

kinds of British moths and butterflies are reared, and the 

owner sells about thirty thousand insects a year, at prices 

ranging from a few cents to fifty dollars. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? 

Up and down the midges dancing 

On the grass, 
How their gauzy wings are glancing 

As they pass! 
What does all this haste and hurry 

Mean, I pray, — 
All this outdoor flush and flurry 

Seen to-day. 
This presaging stir and humming, 

Thrill and call.^ 
Mean.^ — It means that spring is coming; 



GAUZE NETS AROUND TREES ON BUTTERFLY FARM 
TO KEEP THE CATERPILLARS FROM ESCAPING 



That is all. 



— Margaret J. Preston, 



2l6 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Moths 

Hazel: O mother, please tell us whether this is a moth or 
a miller! 

Mother: It may be both. A miller is a pale, whitish moth. 
I suppose they are called by that name because they have a 
dusty look, like a man in a mill who is covered with flour. 
Hazel: It looks some like a butterfly. 
Harold: Do moths like sunshine, mother? 
Mother: Their habit is to fly early in the evening or at night, 
and to rest in some quiet, shady corner during the day. 
Glenn: Is the moth family a large o'ne? 
Mother: Yes, much larger than that of its cousins, the 
butterflies. They exceed in size the largest butterfly, and some 

of them are smaller 
than any butterfly 
known. They have 
four wings like the 
butterfly, but they 
hook together on each 
side. The moth has a 
larger waist, that 
makes it look as if it 
wore a cloak. This you can see by looking at the picture. 
Iva: Moths are not so pretty as butterflies. 
Mother: They do not wear as gay colors, but some are 
dressed in the loveliest and most delicate shades you can im- 
agine. They lay more eggs than the butterfly, and are great 
spinners. Some of their spinning is very useful to you. 

Hazel: Such moths as ate your fur cape and my woolen 
dress do much harm. 

Harold: The gipsy-moth and the brown-tail moth destroy 
our shade-trees. In the eastern part of Massachusetts seven 




MOTH 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



217 



hundred fifty thousand dollars has been paid to destroy their 
eggs and nests, and it is thought that it will cost many thou- 
sands of dollars more. Here are their pictures. The male and 



'i^B^i r'^4f^-,n 




FOREST DEFOLIATED BY GYPSY-MOTH. THE CATERPILLARS EAT THE LEAVES. 
FEMALE AT LEFT; MALE AT RIGHT. 

female gipsy-moths look very different. The eggs are laid in 
a mass, and the mother moth covers them with hair taken from 
the back part of her body. She lays from three hundred to five 
hundred eggs in a season. These moths eat almost all kinds 
of leaves, and would soon destroy our fruit-trees. 

Mother: The caterpillars have big heads and eleven pairs 
of warts on the back. The first five pairs are blue, and the 
last six red. Hairs grow out of these warts, which sting the 
hands worse than nettles. These moths are found in parts of 
Europe. The brown-tail has white, silky wings, and a brown 
body. Its caterpillars spin threads and fasten to the tree the 



2l8 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



leaves they are eating. The best time to exterminate these 
pests is in the winter, and large sums of money are paid to des- 
troy the eggs. 

Hazel: Twenty-three gipsy-moth nests were found in one 
fire-alarm box in Boston, also cast-off skins of caterpillars, and 




PEAR ORCHARD DEFOLIATED BY BROWN-TAIL MOTH. MALE ON THE LEFT; FEMALE ON THE RIGHT. 

pupa-cases. The caterpillars had crawled through the key- 
hole. So all the boxes were closely examined. 

Harold: I read that the Mediterranean moth closed up 
two of the great flour-mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 
moths gathered under the fine silk through which the flour is 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 219 

sifted, and made webs from one to four inches thick. They 
also ate holes in the silk, so the flour could not be sifted. 

Glenn: I saw what looked like a thick spider-web stretched 
over the branch on a tree top, and there were a lot of caterpil- 
lars inside. What kind were they? 

Mother: Web-worms, though they were not worms at all, 
but tent-caterpillars. They are hatched from a nest of golden 
eggs laid by the mother moth on a fresh green leaf. They all 
Come from the eggs about the same time, and after eating a 
breakfast of green leaves, begin to spin. Each one spins a little 
piece of one big web, and they join their work together so 
nicely you would not know but one caterpillar had woven it 
all. The web makes a fine tent. It can be seen best in the 
morning before the dew is gone. It looks like a lace veil spread 
over the twigs and leaves. The whole caterpillar family live 
inside. 

Iva: Do they stay under their tent all the time "i 

Mother: Yes, this kind do not even go out to get their food. 
They eat the leaves covered with their web. When the supply 
is gone, they begin to spin lines to other twigs some distance 
away. They do this so they can find their way back to the 
tent when they have finished eating. Other kinds make their 
tent larger, so it will cover more leaves. They are very un- 
tidy housekeepers, leaving all kinds of dirt and rubbish about, 
and throwing their old clothes down where they take them off; 
for they change their skins like other caterpillars. 

Hazel: What do tent-caterpillars look like.^ 

Mother: They have black heads ; their bodies are pale green, 
dotted with black, and long hairs grow out of their backs. 
Sometimes, when they can cover no more leaves under their 
tent, they go to a new feeding-ground. They generally move 
in the night, and quickly weave a new web. These webs are 
so strong that they protect them from birds and other enemies. 



220 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Iva: How long do the caterpillars stay in their webs? 
Mother: About a month; then they roll up in a little ball 
and drop to the ground, where they hide under a stick or stone 
or some other object, and soon turn to pupae. They afterward 
come out as white moths, though sometimes they are spotted 
with black. 

Harold: I have seen men fasten a torch to a pole and burn 
up the webs in apple-trees, and so get rid of the caterpillars. 
Hazel: The Bible tells about the canker-worm and the 
palmer-worm. They are called a great army. Are they cater- 
pillars instead of worms 1 

Mother: I think so. There is a moth in the United States 
whose caterpillars are called palmer-worms. They eat the 
leaves of apple-trees, leaving only a skeleton of each. 
Iva: What is the canker-worm like.^ ' 

Mother: This is a picture of the male moth, and here is his 

little mate. She has 
no wings. She lays 
her eggs in both 
fruit- and shade- 
trees. Here is an 
enlarged picture of 
wonderful eggs, and this is the top of one &^g. 
laid close together, like honeycomb cells. The larva is a 
looper; that is, it humps up its body when walking; it can also 
hold itself out straight like a twig on a branch. 
Harold: Are army-worms caterpillars? 
Mother: Yes ; that name was given them because they march 
in large numbers at the same time. They generally stay in 
one place; but when food is scarce, or when there is a dry sea- 
son, they multiply so that great armies of them march over the 
country, eating the grass and grain as they go. Once in New 
England they went up over the houses so close together that 





CANKER-WORM MOTHS 



EGG AND TOP OF 
EGG OF CAN- 
KER-WORM 

one of these 
The eggs are 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



221 




ARMY-WORMS SHOWING FULL-GROWN 
LARVA, NATURAL SIZE, ALSO ADULT 
MOTH. ORDINARILY FEED ONLY AT 
NIGHT, BUT WHEN MIGRATING FEED 
DAY AND NIGHT. 



the boards and shingles 
could not be seen. They 
did not eat peas, potatoes, 
or flax; but wheat and 
corn were devoured so that 
only bare stalks were left. 
Here are pictures of the 
moth and the caterpillar. 
When full grown, the cat- 
erpillars bury themselves 
in the ground, and turn to 
pupae. The caterpillars 
called cutworms belong to 
the same family. 
Iva: Please tell us about the clothes-moth, mother. 
Mother: This is its picture; a small body can do 
much harm. It belongs to a group 
called Tin-e-i'na. All the moths in this 
family are small; when their wings are 
spread, they will not stretch over half an 
inch. They are pale yellow, and are 
They may be seen flying about in April and May, but 
keep in shady corners as much as possible. They not 
only eat woolens and furs, but destroy grain and plants. 
They lay their eggs in grains of wheat and barley before they 
are ripe. The caterpillars hatch in a few days, and are hardly 
as thick as a hair. When grown, they spin cocoons inside the 
grain, and go to sleep after having made a little round door 
through which to go out when the grain has been 
put in the granary, and they 
MOTH OF CAT- bccomc moths. The grain ,^ 
ERPiLLAR THAT IS usclcss aftcr the cater- 
EATs GRAIN pjn^j-s havc catcu out the 




THE WOOLEN-MOTH 



not pretty. 





LARVA OF WOOLEN-MOTH 



222 Friends and Foes %n Field and Forest 

inside. Moths never eat anything but liquid food. The 
caterpillar of the wool-moth eats clothing. It is small and 
white at first, but begins to make its clothes as soon as 
hatched, and these are the color of the stuff it works in. It 
makes a tube, or sheath, open at both ends. It puts the 
bright colors inside, and spins a covering for the outside 
of whitish silk. The caterpillars put out their heads and 
look eagerly to right and left for wool that suits them 
best. Sometimes they draw their bodies half-way out of 
the sheath in their search. If they can not find what 
they want, they walk to another pl^ce with their six front 
legs, and hang to their cases, dragging them along with their 
false legs. When the caterpillars find wool to their liking, 
they tear it out and put it inside the cases, and still keep 
busily at work. If one should wish to work at the other 
end of its case, it turns around inside so quickly that you would 
suppose it had two heads. 

Hazel: Do the caterpillars outgrow their clothes ? 

Mother: Yes; but as the tube becomes too small, they make 
it larger by putting a patch in each side of the sheath as neatly 
as a tailor could mend a coat. It would never do to open 
the case all the way at once, so they cut a slit half the distance, 
put in a new piece, then cut the other half open and enlarge 
that also. 

Harold: Do they eat wool for food t 

Mother: Yes, as well as for clothing. There is no place 
they like to work so well as in a chest in some dark room or 
garret. When the caterpillars are full-grown, they creep into 
some snug corner, shut up both ends of their tubes, and take a 
long nap, after which they waken as moths. The caterpillar 
of the fur-moth does more harm than that of the clothes-moth. 
It cuts off the hair on furs as closely as it could be done with a 
sharp razor, and destroys many more hairs than it needs to 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



223 



make its sheath. The hair-moth larvae Hke to live in the hair 
with which furniture is stuffed. 

Glenn: Do the caterpillars of other moths make tubes to 
cover their bodies t 

Mother: There are quite a number that do. Some cater- 
pillars make their coverings out of bits of sticks, leaves, 
grass, or straw, stuck together in different ways. 
Glenn: Do they walk about .^ 

Mother: Yes, as a snail walks. It looks very odd to see 
what appears to be a tube walking along without anything 
in sight to move it. Sometimes these tubes are four or five 
inches long. 

Iva: Do these caterpillars climb trees .f* 

Mother: Yes; and when they wish to close 
the door, they press the end of the tube against 
a branch, or they close it by draw- 
ing the end together with strong 
threads. When ready to turn to 
pupae, they close both ends, and take 
a long sleep. Here is a picture of 
one your Aunt Jennie saw in Aus- 
tralia. She found it one day on a 
branch, and placed it under a glass. 
She learned that some of the female 
insects spend their whole lives in 
these bags, which sometimes open 
only at one end. There are cater- 
pillars that roll up leaves, and make homes for 
themselves that way. They spin silk threads, 
and fasten them to the end of the leaf, and again 
in its center. Each thread is pulled and made shorter until 
the edge of the leaf begins to curl up, and then other threads 
are spun, which in turn are pulled and tightened like the first. 





LEAF 

ROLLED 

SIDEWISE 



BAG WORM 



224 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Over and over and over again the leaf is pulled and rolled, 
then fastened iirmly with short, strong bands of silk, and the 
home is ready for its tenant, and is full of the food that the 
caterpillar likes best, — the inside rolls of the leaf. When one 
roll is eaten, another is made ready. The oak leaf-roller stays 
in his leafy roll while a chrysalis, and until ready to come out 
a moth. If the bough is disturbed on which he is feeding, he 
lets himself down by a silken thread, and may often be seen 
thus hanging. The moths are a brilliant green. 

Glenn: Mother, are there leaf-rollers on maple-trees? 



Mother: O, yes ! If you 
leaves are filled with tiny 
see a little piece of leaf 
you lift a corner of this 
would be stuck out, as if 

Iva: How large is the 




find a maple-tree whose 
holes, look sharp until you 
wrong side up. Should 
wee tent, a small head 
to say, "Who's there?" 
leaf-roller caterpillar? 



Mother: Only one sixth of an inch long. It came from an 
egg left there by its moth mother, who measured less than half 
an inch across her bluish wings. On her head she wore a little 
cap of orange-colored feathers. The baby caterpillars be- 
come pupae in their tents, and when the autumn frosts 
turn the maple leaves to crimson and gold, they float 
down to earth on the leaves that have been their home. 
They sleep in snowy blankets during the winter, and 
become moths in the spring. The caterpillar that rolls 
basswood leaves cuts the leaf half-way across, rolls it 
up, and fastens the roll with cords of silk so it 
can not unfold, and then it lives in the center 
of the roll, as the caterpillar lives in the oak 
leaf. This one has a long name, but is com- 
monly known as the basswood leaf-roller. Some 
caterpillars make tents of leaf- and flower-buds. 
They tie them tightly with silken threads so they 




BASSWOOD 

LEAF 

ROLLED 

INTO 

TENTS 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 225 

can not open. There is a moth that lives in a tube 
made of wax. Some moths make the tubes of silk. The 
mother moth hides about some beehive during the day, and 
unless the sentinels keep a sharp lookout, she steals inside 
just after sunset, in spite of their sharp stings, and lays 
her eggs in the honeycomb. When they hatch, the cater- 
pillars eat wax, and spin their silk around the honeycomb. 
Soon the baby bees die. 

Harold: Why do not the bees sting the caterpillars, and 
hustle them out of the hive .^ 

Mother: The caterpillars build tubes in which to live, and 
the bees can not reach them. These tubes are small at first, 
but become wider and longer as the caterpillars grow. They 
are from three to five inches long when the larvae are grown. 
When ready to become a chrysalis, the caterpillar makes a co- 
coon inside its wax tube, and there becomes a moth. There 
are several kinds of honey-moths. 

Hazel: Do moths lay eggs in the fruit as well as in the 
leaves ? 

Mother: They like fruit as well as we do. What are called 
worms in apples are caterpillars of the codling-moth. They 
have sixteen legs. They become full-grown about the time the 
apples ripen, or just before, and hide in the fruit-room or in the 
apple-trees, where they sleep without eating for several months. 
The moths appear in June or July. In Tasmania the laws are 
strict against the codling-moth. One man was fined because 
a dead moth was found in one of his empty fruit-cases. Cater- 
pillars eat vegetables and grain. They are found in fields, 
forests, and gardens. They work in the night. There are 
eight hundred different kinds of night-moths. Their proper 
name is Noc-tur'na, which means night. These moths are 
scaly, but their caterpillars are smooth. Some feed on leaves, 
others on roots, and some eat other caterpillars. The cater- 
15 



226 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 




LEOPARD-MOTH 

Mother: 
a tiny hole, but 



pillar of the goat-moth 

comes from an tg^ laid 

in a crevice in the bark 

of a tree. It prefers the 

willow, but will thrive in the 

oak, elm, and others. 

Iva: Does the goat-moth 
bore galleries in the wood.^ 
Yes, and eats it, too. At iirst it makes 
as its body grows, it makes wider pas- 
sages through which to travel. This weakens the tree; so 
when strong winds blow, it may fall w^ith a crash. The cat- 
erpillar lives from tw^o to four years before it changes to pupa. 
When disturbed, these larvse squirt out of their mouths a 
liquid which has a bad, strong smell. They grow large, 
sometimes three and one-half inches long and two inches 
around, and are wonderfully strong. A goat-moth caterpil- 
lar was shut up in a glass dome that weighed half a pound, 
and a book weighing four pounds was placed on top of the 
glass, but he made his escape. Professor Lyonnet declared 
more than a hundred years ago that a goat-moth caterpillar 
has more than four thousand muscles. 

Harold: And we have only about five hundred of them. 
Hazel: I read that a goat- 
moth caterpillar was placed in 
a deep glass, and its captor 
thought it would be impossible 
for it to climb up its straight, 
smooth sides, but it spun stairs 
from the bottom to the top of 
the glass dish, and climbed out. 
Mother: After living a long 
time as a caterpillar, the goat larva of the lobster-moth 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 227 

moth builds an egg-shaped ceil of sawdust and glue in the wood, 
and lines it with silk. It makes a good road from this place 
to the outer bark of the tree. Then it goes to sleep. Before 
leaving the pupa-case, it crawls to the opening in the bark by 
means of hooks, or teeth, by which it can push itself along. 
When it reaches the door, it leaves its pupa-case behind, and 
crawls out through the bark. Its color is so like that of the 
tree that it can scarcely be seen. 

Iva: Does this pretty spotted moth live in trees, too? 

Mother: Its name is the leopard-moth, or wood-leopard, 
because it is spotted like the leopard. Its larvae live in trees, 
such as the elm, pear, and chestnut. This moth caterpillar 
is the one from which the lobster-moth comes. 
Its hind legs are forked, and keep moving about to 
frighten away any insect that might lay eggs on it. 

Its body is some like that 
of the lobster. It feeds 
on beech-trees. Its long 
front legs look like those 
CATERPILLAR COVERED of di spidcr, aud it can 
make itself appear quite 
like a spider. When full grown, it fastens several puss-moth 
leaves together, and there turns to pupa. caterpillar 

Hazel: What can this rather odd-looking creature be? 

Mother: The puss-moth. It can look as fierce as a lion if 
a bold ichneumon looking for a nesting-place comes near. It 
does not care to furnish a boarding-place for baby ichneu- 
mons. This moth is soft and furry like pussy. 

Glenn: What is the matter with this caterpillar? 

Mother: It is covered with parasites, which have eaten out 
the inside of its body. They have now come out of their pupa- 
cases, and will soon fly away, leaving the miserable caterpillar 
with whom they have been living, to die. 





228 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



THE SPHINX-MOTHS 

Mother: There is still another family, called the sphinx- 
moths. Their caterpillars raise the fore part of the body, and 
keep perfectly still for a long time, and this gives them the like- 
ness to the sphinx in /""''^X Egyp^- They have a horn 
on the hinder part ^^ f ^.^ \ the body. Most moths fly 
at night, b u t t h e f fp\ I sphinxes fly in the daytime. 
They have the long- I V/ J I est tongues of any 

of the Lep-i-dop'- ^"^^ 1 \/^ te-ra. They are 




ash awk- 
cause they 
their wings are long and 
humming-bird sphinx, 
humming-bird ? 



Very much, five-spotted though its colors are not 

SPHINX-, OR (- n n 

HAWK-MOTH ^^om flowcr to flower, 
without lighting, and 



also known 
moths, b e - 

fly so very swiftly, and 
straight. One of them is the 
Iva: Does it look like a 
Mother: 
so brilliant. It flies quickly 
balancing on its wings 
dipping Its long trunk into the blossoms for honey. Children 
call them bird flies; they have a tuft of hairs at the end of 
the body which looks a little like a bird's tail. They move 

so swiftly that they 

look like a misty cloud. 

Though they fly away if 

you lift your finger, they 

come back; for they seem 

that their swift wings can bear them 

Here is the picture of another hawk- 




to understand 
beyond danger. 



HAWK-MOTH 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



229 




CHRYSALIS OF FIVE-SPOTTED SPHINX 



moth. It lives on potato-vines, tomato leaves, or tobacco. 
It is one of the sphinxes, and all their larvse rear their heads, 

and have tails like horns. 

Hazel: What a strange pupa- 
case! It looks like a jug with a 
big handle. 

Mother: That is where the 
trunk of the moth is folded away. When fully grown this 
sucking-tube will be three or four inches long. The insect 
can coil it tightly, or bend it forward to suck honey from the 
flowers. At twilight the moth goes to seek food and to lay 
its eggs on the leaves of tomato- or potato- 
plants. Its caterpillar is often called a 
potato-worm. It is light green with 
white stripes, and when grown 
is about three inches 
Glenn: Is this the 
of another hawk-motl 
seems larger lh in 
of the others. 
Mother: It 
is the largest 
found in Eu- 
rope, measur- 

One kind in .-^ Madagascar has a tongue 

nine Inches long. It is yellow, green, violet, blue, and white, 
and has many black dots. Unlike most sphinx caterpillars, 
its horn is rough instead of smooth. It eats potato leaves 
and other plants. When ready to turn to a chrysalis, it 
buries itself in the ground, and turns a bright-brown color. 
On the next page is a picture of the moth. It sometimes 
measures five inches across the wings. It is called the 
death's-head hawk-moth. 




HEAD 
HAWK-MOTH 



230 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



Hazel: I see what looks like a skull and bones on its back. 
Mother: Those marks give it its name. It is thickly cov- 
ered with dark-brown hair; the mark of the skull is pale yellow. 
It flies only in the early morning or evening, and makes a 
squeaking noise, Mr. Wood says: *'If seized or 
alarmed in any way, it produces a sharp, squeak- 
ing sound, something like the cry of a mouse. It 
was always easy to make my death's-head 
moths squeak, nothing more being re- 
quired than 
to introduce 
a little stick 
under the 
glass shade that 
covered them, and 
to press one of their 
aggrieved moth would 
low as possible, and with a sort of 
tremble of the whole body, out came the 
The caterpillar can squeak, too. 
I suppose such a big moth and caterpillar do a 
great amount of mischief . 

Mother: Some small ones do more. Sometimes the moth 
works its way into beehives, for it likes honey. The bees may 




DEATH S- 
HEAD HAWK- 
MOTH 

feet. The 
crouch as 
shiver or 
squeak." 
Harold. 




PURSLANE 
CATERPILLAR 



succeed in driving it away with their stings, but its coat of fur 
is so thick that they often sting to no purpose, and the bees 
beat a hasty retreat. Here is the purslane caterpillar-, another 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



231 




PURS- 
LANE- 
MOTH 



States. Here is a 
put one of the cat- 
several inches of 



of the hawk-moth family. It lives on low-growing plants, 
such as buckwheat, turnips, and some kinds of weeds. It 
grows to be four inches long, and is green or brown, with red, 
yellow, and black spots and lines. The horn near the end of 

its body is like 
that of other 
hawk-moth cater- 
pillars. It is found 
in Ohio, Illinois, Mis- 
souri, and other Central 
« picture of the moth. You can 
erpillars in an earthen flower-pot with 
loose soil, and some of the plant on 
which it was feeding. Cover with a piece of glass. After a 
time you may find the caterpillar gone,but do not worry. In 
a few days empty the earth out of the pot carefully, and find 
the chrysalis. Place it back in the soil, keep it damp, but not 
wet, and still keep the dish covered, so the moth will not 
escape. 

Hazel: How long will it take for it to become a moth ? 
Mother: About two weeks. You might put a small stick 
in the flower-pot, 
on which the moth 
can rest and dry its 
wings when it comes 
out. 

' Mother: There is a big 
moth seen near groves or 

forests in early summer. X^^fej^ ^c^^S^ Its wmgs 
stretch over six inches. They — ^--^_:--^ ^^^ brown 
with buff edges, and in each wing is a reddish spot with a 
white center and a black band around it. Its caterpillar is 
light green, covered with red and yellow warts, and is almost 




PROME- 
THEA-MOTH 



232 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



three inches long. It spins a large cocoon, and fastens it to a 
stem or twig, where it turns to a chrysaHs. 

Hazel: What kind of moth is this? 

Mother: The pro-me'the-a, a beautiful moth whose brown 
wings have a gray border and are marked with wavy red and 
white lines. Its horns, or antennae, look like ferns. Here are 
pictures of different forms of antennae. Those that have knobs 




AXTENN".^ OF LEPIDOPTERA 



on the end belong to the butterflies, and the others to moths. 
Promethea's caterpillar fastens a leaf to the twig to cover its 
cocoon. There it swings in the open air all winter. Should 
you find one and keep it till summer, if it had no mishap, you 
would see a beautiful moth. 

Hazel: I saw a little blue-and-white insect on a peach-tree. 
I could not tell whether it was a moth or a wasp. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



233 




Mother: It must have been the peach-borer, which belongs 

to a family called clearwings, because their wings 

are not covered with hair, or scales, like those of 

other moths. While a caterpillar, it lives about 

/ f \ a year in the wood of peach-trees. It hurts the 

PEACH-BORER trcc SO it Can not bear fruit, and sometimes it dies. 

Harold: Are there many kinds of clearwings 1 

Mother: Quite a number. Currant clearwings are found 

on currant bushes, and looks like gnats. Some look like ants, 

flies, or wasps. The hornet clearwing seems so much like a 

wasp that it is difficult to tell to what family it belongs. There 

is one that even looks like the ichneumon-fly, the enemy of 

all butterflies and moths. 



THE MARCHING CATERPILLARS 

Mother: These caterpillars belong to the small gray pro- 
cessionary moth, 
and live in oak- 
trees. About sun- 
set they come out 
and march. Re- 
aumur took an 
oak branch cov- 
ered with them 
into h i s study, 
and watched 
them many days. 
He hung the 
branch against a 
window- shutter. 
When the leaves 
were dried up, 

the caterpillars 
16 




LARV^ OF PROCESSIONARY MOTH 



234 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



tried to leave the branch, in order to seek better food. 
One set himself in motion, a second followed at his tail, a third 
followed this one, and so on. They began to march up the 
shutter, so near to each other that the head of the second 
touched the tail of the first, forming a perfect string of cater- 
pillars about two feet long. Then two caterpillars marched 
abreast, but as near the one which preceded them as those who 
were marching in single file were to one another. After a 

few rows of two 
abreast, came rows 
of three abreast, 
then four, then 
five, others of six, oth- 
ers of seven, and others 
of eight caterpillars. This 
troop was led by the first. 
If it halted, all the oth- 
ers halted; when it again 
marched, all the others 
themselves in motion, and 
followed with the greatest pre- 
cision. This goes on every day 
in the woods where these cater- 
pillars live. When near sunset, one caterpillar comes out of a 
nest by the opening at the top, which would hardly afford 
space for two to come out abreast. It is followed by many 
others in single file. When about two feet from the nest, it 
pauses, and those still in the nest continue to come out. They 
fall into their ranks, the battalion is formed, and the leader 
marches again, all the others following him. That which goes 
on in this nest takes place in all the neighboring nests at the 
same time. 

Harold: A man once thought he would see how long these 




lOMOTH AND CATERPILLAR 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 235 

processionarles would inarch in one direction, and so started 
the iile on the edge of a large stone vase. For seven long days 
they traveled on, until every one died. Day and night they 
followed one another without rest until the end came. 

Mother: Here is a picture of the largest moth found in 
Europe, the lo-moth. When flying at night, it might be taken 
for a bird. There are spots of one color within a ring of an- 
other color on its v/ings, like the spots, or eyes, at the end of 
peacocks' feathers. Perhaps they are wing windows. The 
family of lo-moths is very large in North America, and they 
all have these color eyes on their wings. 

Iva: The caterpillar looks as if it had stars on its back. 

Mother: Those stars are stiff, bristling hairs that grow on 
warty, blue bunches on its body. The caterpillar itself is 
green. If touched, the hairs sting like nettles. lo caterpillars 
often march like processionary caterpillars. When walking, 
they sometimes stretch out in two lines like a V, the way 
wild geese fly; but when about half-grown, lo caterpillars stop 
marching together, and each one goes by itself. 

Appearances Are Deceitful 

"What a beautiful light that lamp gives, " said a moth as he 
stood on the window-sill. 

"Yes, it does, " said a fly, who fluttered with great difficulty 
toward the moth. "But you would better not go near it; it's 
anything but safe." 

" Surely there can be no danger there, " said the moth ; " the 
flame looks so cheerful and bright. " 

"Yes, but it burns, " said the fly. " I am suffering from it 
now. I ventured too near, and It so scorched my wing that it 
is almost helpless." 

" I really think you must be mistaken, " answered the moth. 



236 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



"I do not see how that beautiful light could injure anything. 
I shall fly to it, and see for myself." 

''Take care," buzzed the fly; ''appearances are sometimes 
deceitful. " 

"All right, " said the moth. He flew toward the flame, and 
soon fell on the table, severely burned, and nearly dead. 

"There is folly now, " said the fly. " Some people will trust 
appearances rather than heed the kind warnings of those who 
have suffered through their deceitfulness." 

The brilliant saloon deceives and destroys boys and men, as 
the dazzling light scorches the fluttering wings that venture 
too near. The first cigarette burns the soul; and the boy who 
is deceived by it and by the first glass of beer, is like the silly 
m.oth. — Selected. 

Caterpillars and Silk 

Mother: As I was going up-stairs one morning, in Washing- 
ton, D. C, I saw this moth hiding in a shaded corner. It was 
pale green, and had tails on its 
wings like some butterflies; and it 
had an eye-spot on 
each of its four 
wings, surrounded 
by rings of white, 
red, yellow, and black. 
In each eye was a 
moon. It was the 
luna-moth, often called 
the queen of the night, 
or the pale empress of 
the night, and it is 
rarely seen. Its wings 
cover four or five 




LUNA-MOTH 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 237 

inches. The caterpillar is bluish-green, with yellow bands 
and stripes. It grows to be about three inches long. 
When ready to turn to a chrysalis, it draws two or three 
leaves together, and spins its cozy bed inside them. It after- 
ward falls to the ground, where it remains during the winter. 
The moth comes out in May or June, and is very pretty. It 
has some large cousins in other countries, the atlas-moth, in 
Asia, measuring about nine inches across its wings. I saw one 
in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Giant moths 
in Brazil have wings that stretch a foot from tip to tip. The 
silkworm-moth belongs to this family. Some caterpillars are 
worth thousands of dollars; for the silkworm, or caterpillar, 
spins the silk to make all the dresses and ribbons worn. Its 
true name is Bom'byx mo'ri. 

Harold: Where is the silkworm found? 

Mother: Its native country is China. It is said that more 
than four thousand years ago there was an emperor in China, 
known as Hoang-ti. That would be two thousand years 
before Christ came to this world. Hoang-ti wished his wife, 
Si-ling-chi, to do all she could to make the people happy, and 
so told her to study the silkworm, and try to use its threads. 
Si-ling-chi gathered a large number of the insects and fed 
them herself. She found out how to rear them, how to wind 
their silk, and how to weave it into fabrics. From China the 
eggs of the silkworm were carried to Europe, and the people 
tried to manufacture silk there, but it was hundreds of years 
before they were successful. Sometimes it sold for its weight 
in gold. One emperor would not buy his wife a silk garment 
because it was so expensive. 

Hazel: Now almost every one wears something made of it. 

Mother: It is less than two hundred years since it be- 
came common. Now the rearing of silkworms has become 
a great industry in many countries, and thousands of men 



238 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



and women devote all their time to caring for the caterpillars 
and making the silk ready for weaving. To France alone 
over nine million pounds sterling, or about forty-five mil- 
lion dollars, is paid for silk stuffs. You see it pays to care 
for these caterpillars and set them to work. The first silk- 
factory in the United States was built at Mansfield, Con- 
necticut, in 1810. In 1875 the value of silk manufactures 
in this country had become twenty-seven million dollars a 
year, and it is much larger now. In Italy, Spain, Greece, and 
other southern countries of Europe, and in India and China, 
silk culture is a profitable industry. Here are pictures of the 

American silkworm cater- 
pillar, its cocoon, and the 
full-grown moth. The cat- 
erpillar is pale green, with 
yellow lines on its sides. 
• Iva: What does it eat.^ 
Mother: It likes oak 
leaves best, but will also eat Osage orange, elm, maple, 
willow, poplar, and other leaves. It has a good appetite; 
by the time it is grown, one caterpillar will have eaten 
one hundred twenty oak leaves. 

Hazel: It would take quite a forest to keep many of them 
at that rate. Its cocoon looks as if 
made of leaves. 

Mother: It first spins threads to 
fasten several leaves together. Then 
it begins to spin threads between 
them in all directions, and inside it cocoon of American silkworm 
makes its cocoon of many layers of silk, which it sticks to- 
gether with a kind of glue. 

Iva: How long does it take to spin the cocoon.^ 

Mother: About four or five days. The caterpillar then 




AMERICAN 
SILKW ORM 




Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



239 



turns to a chrysalis, and remains so all winter. You might 
keep it frozen as hard as stone, and yet in the spring it would 
come out a large, beautiful moth. It has four eye-spots on its 




AMERICAN SILK- 
WORM-MOTH, OR 
POLYPHEMUS 
MOTH 



wings, two big ones and two little ones, and looks a little like 
the luna-moth, but has no tails. 

Glenn: How are the moths cared for when they are kept to 
make silk.f* 

Mother: The first thing is to get the eggs, ana to provide a 
building where the silkworms may be kept, one where the rooms 
can be kept warm, and supplied with fresh air. There should 
be plenty of racks, cupboards, or tables 
that can be easily reached, where the 
worms may be kept after hatching. Each 
rack should have a small border, so the 
silkworms can not fall off. 

Harold: Where are the eggs obtained.^ 

Mother: From those who rear silkworms, 
in winter, and kept in a cold place. As soon as the buds of the 
mulberry-trees begin to open, the eggs are set for hatching. 
Mulberry leaves are the best food, and before beginning to 
rear the caterpillars, there must be a good supply of leaves. 




CHRYSALIS OF AMERICAN 
SILKWORM AFTER CO- 
COON IS TAKEN OFF 

They are bought 



240 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Harold: How do the eggs of the silkworm-moth look? 

Mother: They are about as large as a pin-head or a mustard- 
seed. When wanted for hatching, they are spread on sheets of 
clean paper placed on racks. They must not be put in the sun- 
shine, nor left where they will become chilled. In five or six 
days a few caterpillars come from the eggs; in two or three days 
more, they begin to come out in large numbers. Those that 
hatch each day are kept by themselves. Those that come from 
the eggs after the third day of hatching are generally thrown 
away. Then the leaves are picked and cut iine. The little 
caterpillars are covered with netting, and the leaves spread on 
top of that. They reach through the holes in the net, and are 
soon eating with all their might. 

Glenn: Do they grow fast.^ 

Mother: Indeed they do, but it requires much work and 
constant care to keep them in health and growing as they 
should. 

Harold: Do they change their skin as other caterpillars do.^ 

Mother: In the same way. This change is called molting, 
or sickness. They molt four times, so each caterpillar that be- 
comes full-grown passes through five periods of growth, called 
ages. When ready to molt, the silkworm changes its color 
from white or gray to yellow. It stops eating, and after spin- 
ning a few loose threads, slips under them and goes to sleep, 
and sleeps from twelve to twenty-four hours. While sleeping, 
a new skin grows; and when the worm awakes, it begins to 
twist its head about, causing the old skin to break; so it soon 
crawls forth in its new suit. After resting about an hour, it is 
ready to begin eating again. Netting with larger holes is placed 
over them each time they molt, fresh leaves are placed on top, 
the worms crawl through, and then all the old litter and skins 
are cleaned away. 

Hazel: Do silkworms eat as much as other caterpillars? 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 241 

Mother: Yes, they are as hungry and eat as greedily. Where 
there are a large number together, it is said the noise made 
by their jaws when they are eating is like that made by a heavy 
shower of rain. After molting the last time, they eat without 
stopping. It takes constant care and attention to rear such a 
family. At first they are given eight meals a day, and the 
leaves are cut very fine. From the end of the second age they 
have but four meals, and the leaves are not cut so small, and 
after the fourth age they are not cut at all. When the cater- 
pillars are getting ready to go to sleep, they are not fed so 
much. During the third age they often do not have strength 
to molt, and soon die. But the greatest number that can not 
molt are found in the fourth age. This is a critical time for the 
worms, and for those who keep them. 

Hazel: How can one tell whether they are sick or well? 

Mother: Those that can not molt are larger than the 
others and look shiny. The keepers take them away from 
the trays, for they would soon make the air smell badly. 
Unless they grow to be full size, they do not spin, and all 
the labor bestowed upon them is lost. During the last 
sleep the caterpillars seem to suffer great pain, and often 
appear as if dead. Even though kept dry and clean, there is 
an unpleasant, sickly smell in the building, and as many as one 
sixth of the caterpillars die at this time. Sometimes they get 
rid of their old skins, but do not have enough strength left to 
eat. Others become fat and lazy from overeating, and they 
die, too. Then there are diseases common to silkworms. They 
seem to become ill in a moment, change to a dull white, and 
soon die, and after death are covered with a floury dust. An- 
other sickness is present from the beginning of life, becoming 
worse during each age. Nothing can be done to prevent these 
diseases except to keep the litter clean on which they feed, the 
air pure, and not to crowd them too closely together. 



242 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

Glenn: When do they spin their silk? 

Mother: At the end of the fifth age. During the time they 
are growing so fast, they must be moved apart every day or 
two. When grown, they are pale green or a dusty-white color, 
and have black heads. They grow to be about three inches 
long. The time from hatching till spinning is a little less than 
six weeks. 

Iva: How do they begin to spin.^^ 

Mother: They stop eating, grow very restless, and keep 
moving their heads about as if looking for something. This 
is what is called the mounting season. The one in charge of 
the caterpillars then places little dry branches, a wooden frame, 
a rolled paper, or something hollow, into which the worms can 
climb to do their spinning. 

Harold: Why do they climb up before they make their 
cocoons .^ 

Mother: No doubt they want something to which they can 
fasten the house in which they expect to go to sleep. All the 
caterpillars mount in one day, and are then ready to set their 
little spinning-machines in motion. The silk i^ formed in long 
tubes inside the body of each caterpillar. It comes out of a 
little opening just back of the mouth. Two streams or threads 
come out of the tubes at the same time; for it is really a double 
tube. A sort of varnish is poured over them, which unites 
them in one, and it is this that makes the shine that we see on 
silk. Though men have tried to make silk like it, they have 
failed every time. Caterpillars make the richest, most beau- 
tiful fabric known. 

Glenn: I should think the silk would get tangled up. 

Mother: While inside the body, it is a thick fluid, which be- 
comes hard as soon as poured out through the spinneret of the 
caterpillar. The first threads are coarse, and are fastened to 
the branches as a framework to hold the finished cocoon in 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 



243 



place. This is called floss, or refuse silk. The caterpillar 
moves its head every time it spins a thread, and moves it very 
quickly, too; it is no drone while at work. Back and forth goes 
the little black head, spinning a thread laid in loops like the 
figure 8. It is said that it moves its head about three hundred 
thousand times in making its cocoon. As it takes three days, 
or seventy-two hours, to finish it, you can see how fast it must 
work. 

Harold: That would make one hundred thousand move- 
ments a day, four thousand one hundred sixty-six an hour, or 
sixty-nine every minute, more than one a second. 

Glenn: How long is the thread it spins .^ 

Mother: It makes one about an inch long with every move- 
ment, so. the whole thread is more than half a mile long, and 
some say much longer. While spinning, the silkworm curls 
itself up like a horseshoe with its legs outside, and places the 
thread all around its body. At first, while the threads are still 
soft, it can be seen at work. It glues the threads together as it 
spins, and when its work is finished, it has a snug home where 
it can lie safely hidden while in the pupa state. 

Harold: How does it look while asleep t 

Mother: It becomes much smaller than when it began spin- 
ning; for all the silk of which its cocoon is 
made was inside its body. It 
turns as white as wax, its false 
legs wither away, the skin dries 
up, and the pupa pushes it 
back to the hinder part of the 
cocoon. 

Hazel: How long does it 
stay inside.^ 

Mother: From fifteen to sev- 
enteen days. Here is a picture *^ocoons of silkworms 





244 Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 

of two cocoons. Most cocoons are white or yellow. The 
white ones are made of the choicest silk. Some are green, 
rose-colored, or even purple. 

Hazel: How can one know when the spinning stops .^ 

Mother: When there is no noise inside, the work is done. 
The cocoons are gathered together and sorted, and some are 
kept for moths to lay eggs for the next hatching. ■ The female 
cocoon is larger than that of the male. 

Glenn: How can it ever get out of its prison? 

Mother: I do not wonder that you ask; for, while one thread 
of silk is not very strong, when thousands are woven together, 
they would bind the strongest giant. One thing that helps 
the chrysalis is that there is a liquid in its body with which it 
moistens the silk, and then it makes its way out, and becomes 
a moth if left to itself. But to get the silk, the cocoons are 
steamed or baked, and that kills the chrysalises inside. Some 
stick the cocoons they wish to save close together on brown 
paper. As soon as the moths appear, they are put on cloth 
or sheets of paper, where they lay their eggs. 

Iva: Do they ever fly away.^ 

Mother: The females of moths reared for silk-spinning have 
imperfect wings, and even in the wild state stay in their own 
mulberry-tree all their lives. Their willingness to stay at 
home makes them of value; for if they were disposed to roam 
about, it would be impossible to produce silk. There is a 
moth in Brazil that makes even better silk than the one of 
which you have been reading, but it can not be kept quiet. 
You see workers who remain at home accomplish most in the 
world. The mother moth is very orderly about laying her eggs. 
She places them side by side, but rarely piles them up. The 
eggs are covered with glue, which sticks them to the cloth or 
paper on which they are laid, and they can be rolled up and 
stored in a cold room until the following spring. 



Friends and Foes in Field and Forest 245 

Hazel: How many eggs does each moth lay? 

Mother: From three hundred to seven hundred. They are 
bright yellow at first, then brown, gray, blue, violet, and yellow 
again. It takes about thirty-five thousand eggs to weigh an 
ounce. 

Harold: How is the silk got off the cocoons .^ I should think 
it would become so tangled that it could not be unwound. 

Mother: It is a hard task, and requires patient, careful, 
and close attention. First, the flossy covering is picked off, 
and the cocoons tossed into hot water to loosen the gum that 
sticks the threads together. While soaking, they are stirred 
about with a small brush or a branch covered with twigs. 
The threads that get caught on the brush or in the twigs are 
shaken about with the hand till they can be joined together 
and wound on a reel made for the purpose. 

Glenn: I should think such slender threads would break. 

Mother: They do, and must then be found and joined to- 
gether. If the silk on one cocoon is not so long as that on 
others, another is taken to make the thread of the same length. 
When reeled off, it is called raw silk. Then it is taken to a 
factory, where it is cleaned, doubled, twisted, dyed, and made 
ready for the weaver. 

Harold: No wonder silk costs more than cotton or wool 
when it takes so much work and care to prepare it. 

Mother: And it is the humble caterpillars that work day 
and night furnishing these rich and costly fabrics, most beau- 
tiful of anything to wear. So while we remember that many 
insects are troublesome and cause us loss, we must not forget 
that millions more are a benefit and a blessing to man. 



Easy Steps the Bible Story 

By Mrs. Adelaide B. Evans 

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REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSN., Washington. D. C. 



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